


if it's loving that you want

by lirryakalife (orphan_account)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (some version of it at least), Alpha/Omega, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-23 00:06:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/lirryakalife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So they’d taken the boy home- his wristband had said Liam- and now they didn’t know what to do because he had sat at the floor by Louis’ feet the second he’d been let into their shared flat and now he wasn’t saying a thing."</p><p>In which Liam's a sex pet that the other four boys have purchased, but he's a lot shyer and frightened than they had thought he would be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. part one

**Author's Note:**

> I made Liam smaller than all of the other boys and younger too, because it fit in with the story better. Title from Rihanna's song of the same name.

“Stan says his one sucked him for an hour straight,” Louis mused, lying across Zayn on the sofa and playing with the zipper of Zayn’s jeans. Niall was sprawled out on the floor, with Harry curled up with his feet. The four of them were supposed to be just relaxing (actually, Zayn had brought some English homework with him but he’d never actually thought he’d get a chance to do it) enjoying the fact that they were at university now, they were independent _men._

Louis had been trying to convince them for the past two hours that getting a sex pet would be a good idea. Pretty much every household had one: not all of them were for sex, although the ones that were tended to be the happiest because these people craved attention and affection. You got ones that just acted like a maid, a babysitter, or even just a friend. Louis thought that it would be a good idea, but getting the other boys to agree to it was proving to be a lot harder than he’d thought.

“They cost like five thousand pounds!” exclaimed Niall, taking a break from running his hands through Harry’s curls. The younger boy whined when Niall moved away to sit up and glare at Louis, but he didn’t move from his position on the floor. “None of us are earning that kind of money, and even if we were we wouldn’t be blowing it on buying a _pet.”_

He was right. It was extremely expensive, buying a human pet. Some people saved up for years before they could get one, and richer people would show off by having the most expensive pet they could find. Harry found it all rather obscene and strange and wanted nothing to do with it. Niall rather agreed- he didn’t think it was wrong, they’d all grown up with a pet and it was all they’d ever known, but the two of them had always thought differently from other people and felt sorry for these people, even though they were always so happy, as Louis pointed out.

“You know, I don’t quite understand why we have to do everything together,” drawled Zayn from beneath Louis, but he wasn’t really bothered. Whatever the other boys agreed Zayn would go along with: not because he liked to be pushed around, far from it, but he just found it easier to agree and in all honesty, he didn’t really care. It didn’t bother him either way, so long as they came to an agreement and he could get back to sleep.

“We have each other, I don’t get what the problem is,” Harry frowned, finally sitting up and looking at Louis. “Are we not good enough, then?”

Harry wasn’t getting the point that Louis was trying to make. Yes, he liked the hand jobs the boys shared and very much enjoyed those rare times in which Harry was willing to take them into his mouth, but at the end of the day all four of them had been born Dominants. The idea of letting someone else into their bodies made all of their skin crawls, and the desire to find a Submissive and be with them was so strong that it hurt Louis, and he knew the other boys must have felt it too. He loved these boys to death and he didn’t know what he’d do without them, but he needed more, and he knew they did too.

Not all Submissives were pets, but all pets were submissive. Louis’ father had been the Dominant to his mother, and they’d had a sex pet (Louis was glad that they kept the details of this relationship to each other, because he really didn’t want to know) and Louis had been fascinated with the way that even giving Josh a simple hug made the boys eyes crinkle and make him beam with adoration. Louis had always been so excited to have a pet of his own, to make someone happy like that.

“You know I love you,” Louis mumbled. “Just I don’t see why we can’t love someone else, too.”

*

Of course Louis got his way, because Louis always got his way and all of the boys had more money than sense. Niall had whined about finances, but Louis had reminded him that his parents would be more than willing to help him out just this once, and five thousand divided into four boys wasn’t as much as it could have been. Zayn hadn’t protested at all, had just lazily shrugged when Harry gave him a desperate look, one that clearly said _he’s going to do it anyway so we might as well just go along with it._ Harry had been reluctant and against the idea at first, but his face had softened when Louis told him how happy he could make their pet, how they could look after them, care for them.

They all wanted to look after someone desperately- it was built in them, to want to protect someone and be a virile male. But they couldn’t look after each other- it went against their sense of pride, and the boys had all lost count of the many times Harry had refused to let them make him soup when he was ill, or Niall hadn’t told them he’d run out of money and couldn’t buy any food. Or when Zayn was feeling homesick and he’d go hide under the covers of his bed for hours, turning the other boys away when they went to give him cuddles. And lastly when Louis was behind with all his coursework and was at risk of being kicked off the course, he wouldn’t let anyone help him with his work and would instead have weekends where he would catch up on the massive amount of work that he had left to do.

The thought of having someone they could all look after, together, was appealing to all of the boys, even if all of them didn’t want to admit it. They’d still have each other- they’d just have someone else, too. Someone who wouldn’t turn away from their affection, someone who would like to be looked after.

*

The boy was tiny. He was even smaller than Niall- and that was saying something, because for a Dominant, Niall sure was compact. He had chocolate coloured hair, which was cut short (but not too short) so it reached his neck. He sat in the middle of the room (on the floor, which had made the other boys wince) with his head bowed down, fiddling with his fingers, chest heaving. Zayn looked at the other boys as if asking what the hell they should do or say, because this was not what they had been expecting.

There were pet shops, or more like houses full of boys that you could purchase, and they all wore the same thing: a wristband, no shirt, and black trousers. The wristband was their identification brand- it had their name printed on it, and where they came from. Even Louis had felt a bit uneasy walking around there, with all these boys sitting in their rooms with glass walls, staring at them as they walked past. They had all gone together, the four boys, because they all had different tastes and none of the boys could be trusted to do this alone. This boy had stuck out in particular, because he sat right in the corner of his room, as if no one could see him, and none of the other pets were speaking to him like they spoke to the others.

Four boys all wanting one Submissive was completely heard of, so their presence had stirred a lot of attention, everyone vying for their attention- the thought of having four Dominants caring for you, wanting you, was like paradise to these Submissives and they were all desperate to be bought by them. Louis had agreed with Zayn that he didn’t want someone like that, someone who was so eager for attention that they’d get it from anyone. Niall had been staring at the boy they would eventually choose, whilst Harry was standing away from all of the other boys, still sulking about the whole situation.

So they’d taken the boy home- his wristband had said Liam- and now they didn’t know what to do because he had sat at the floor by Louis’ feet the second he’d been let into their shared flat and now he wasn’t saying a thing. Louis was slightly better about this than the others- he’d let Liam lean on his leg without a word, and even reached down to stroke his head.

“Don’t fucking pet him, he’s not a dog,” Harry hissed, but Liam made a whining noise when Louis played with his hair, and scooted even _closer_ to him on the floor, so Harry frowned, but didn’t say anything else.

So the boys stood in silence around Liam for a little while longer, with Louis slowly stroking his hair, until Niall began to get restless and started pacing around. He startled Liam, who blinked and crawled backwards a bit, until Niall realised what he’d done and sighed.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” he told Liam. “We just don’t know what we’re doing here, alright?”

Liam nodded, and then wrapped his arms around his knees and closed his eyes. “Are you going to touch me?” he asked, sounding a bit hopeful, and Zayn looked freaked out and looked at Louis for help, because what the fuck was this?

“Oh shit,” Niall said. “What exactly have you been told, Liam?”

Liam shifted slightly and smiled, just a bit, looking a tiny bit proud but unsure of himself. “You chose me,” he said, sounding surprised. “The four of you, you chose me.”

The four boys just wanted to pick Liam up, because he was adorable and he looked like he was dying for someone to take him into their arms and just _love him._ None of them had expected to quite feel this way- they all looked at each other, confused, and then back at Liam whose face was slowly falling.

“Did you not want me?” he asked, blinking quickly and biting his lip, looking both confused and scared. “I thought- we all thought- you wanted me. Was I wrong?”

Harry groaned, because he couldn’t watch this. He couldn’t watch this adorable boy, Liam; sit on the floor like he was no more than an animal, wearing barely any clothes and an _identification band_ , watching his face get sadder second by second. “Fuck this,” he said and walked out of the room, his entire posture screaming ‘this is your problem.’

Harry getting moody and walking off wasn’t surprising to the boys- but what was surprising was Liam’s reaction. He made this horrible, horrible quiet wailing sound and started biting his lip even more, watching where Harry had left the room. For a moment it looked like he was going to get to his feet and follow him- but then he seemed to collapse on himself.

“Oh god,” he moaned. “He hates me already, you’re going to send me back, oh my god, bring him _back.”_ He seemed to have lost any inhibition he’d had before about being silent- he was shaking, big tears falling down his cheeks, looking like Harry had just stepped on his heart or something. And Louis couldn’t resist, he couldn’t help himself, he leaned forward and gathered Liam into his arms, held him tight and kissed his forehead. Liam wasn’t too heavy: he felt perfect in Louis’ arms, and the second he felt Louis touching him he turned his head into his chest for more comfort.

“We’re not sending you back,” he murmured softly to Liam, who had gone silent and limp in his arms. “We’re not sending him back, are we boys?” Louis turned to Zayn and Niall, who were watching Liam like they couldn’t believe what was happening.

They both shook their heads: they could see instinctively that the thought of being sent back to that place made Liam’s skin crawl, and they didn’t want to upset him any further. Zayn walked over to Louis and Liam and rubbed Liam’s shoulder reassuringly- Liam instantly moaned and leaned back into Zayn’s touch, rubbing his head on him, and that’s how they stood for a moment, Liam in between Louis and Zayn, just taking comfort in the fact they were _there._

“What are we going to do, lads?” Niall asked after a bit. “We’re definitely not sending him back, but we can’t just use him, look at him.” Niall hadn’t expected their pet to be so _cute._ He almost felt resentment for Louis at being able to hold Liam like that, and jealousy for Zayn at the way Liam was leaning into his touch like Zayn was the only thing keeping him together. He _really_ hadn’t expected to feel like that.

“He’ll stay with me,” Louis spoke up. “Before you say anything, Niall- nothing will happen. He just seems to like me-” Liam nodded furiously at this point- “and I haven’t got a problem with any of this, so he can stay with me in my room and I’ll make sure he’s alright. Harry will get over this eventually and this will all start making sense, alright? He’s ours and we’re going to look after him.”

*

The boys had had an idea of what this would be like, but they had all, naturally, been wrong about it. Louis had somehow thought that they’d get someone he was just like them, but a Submissive, but he’d adapted quickly to the situation. Zayn had thought he’d be shy, but not like _that._ Liam literally looked like you could break him. He was small for their standards (Harry was the tallest at 6, 2 with Niall the shortest at 5, 11) but was still at least 5, 8 and he was quite toned, but his face- his face looked so young, he looked so wary of his surroundings. The boys had all rather stupidly thought this would be easy, just to invite someone in that they could baby a little bit and share- not a whole massive project like Liam was turning out to be.

That night, after Harry had come back, the boys had all had dinner together. Liam had looked confused when Zayn brought him to the table: “I’m eating _with you guys?”_ and had looked extremely uncomfortable, too. He’d been sat in between Zayn and Louis, because it seemed like he had taken the best to them, with Niall opposite him (next to Harry, who still hadn’t said a word to Liam yet). He ate with his head down, not speaking, scrunching his shoulders like he could make himself not be seen. The only time he made sounds were on two occasions: when Niall reached for the sauce at the same time as him and had brushed against Liam’s hand (Liam had gasped) and when Louis stroked his leg softly halfway through dinner his eyes had practically rolled back into his head.

 And now it was time for them all to go to sleep- it was about eleven, the boys didn’t have anything planned university wise for the next couple of days but they were all tired and feeling awkward and Liam was supposed to be staying with Louis. Louis had realised instantly his mistake: he’d expected their pet would be fine with everything right from the off, so they hadn’t saved a room or a separate bed for him or anything. Zayn shared with Harry (the two boys had both insisted when they’d got the flat) and Niall’s room was next to Louis’. They had been lucky to get a flat that was big enough for the four of them. Louis decided he’d just sleep next to Liam in the bed, just to avoid any awkward conversations.

But when he came back from his shower, Liam was _naked on top of the covers,_ legs crossed, and hands in his lap, watching the door, waiting for Louis to come into the room. When Louis swore and turned around, trying to give Liam some privacy, Liam made a small sound of pain.

“Why did you choose me?” Liam whispered. “None of you even _want me._ No one ever has, they always ignore me, so when all of you wanted me- everyone was jealous of me. I couldn’t believe it.”

Louis sat to Liam on the bed, holding his arms out and making a small sound of satisfaction when Liam scrambled into his arms (almost as if he couldn’t believe Louis was offering and wanted to be fast in case he changed his mind). “Of course we want you,” Louis told him. “You’re gorgeous. It’s just- we’re really not sure about all of this, and none of us want to scare you.”

Liam had literally wilted when Louis had called him gorgeous. “But Harry, he doesn’t like me, he won’t even- he won’t even touch me.”

“Harry will come around. Harry just has more- _morals_ than the rest of us. But he wants you, I could see when he looked at you- we all _want_ you.”

Liam kissed Louis’ cheek. “I like you,” he said. “Do you like me?”

Louis laughed harshly. “Yeah, course I do,” he told Liam. “I’ve got you some nightclothes, come on. They’re over here.” He tried to move, to shift Liam out of his lap so he could get him some clothes to wear for the night, but Liam wouldn’t move and looked confused.

“I don’t understand,” he said eventually. “How are we going to have sex if we’re both dressed?”

Louis’ mouth dropped open- Liam looked genuinely so confused, his head tilted to one side, staring at Louis. “We’re not having sex!” squeaked Louis, eyes wide.

Liam’s face _dropped,_ there was no other way of describing it, it literally fell, and he looked sad all over again. “Oh,” was all he said, and then he got himself under the covers, facing away with Louis. He was shaking, in the foetus position, and Louis immediately felt guilty.

“Oh, shit,” he said, reaching over and rubbing Liam’s shoulders. “It’s not because I don’t want to, alright? It’s because you’re so _small,_ and the other boys would kill me.”

He got under the covers with Liam and pulled him towards him, and kissed him softly. “Trust me, I want to.”

“You chose me,” Liam repeated. “You chose me for this and now you’re not doing _anything,_ and you keep telling me you want me but it doesn’t feel like you do at all.”

And then Louis grabbed Liam’s head and finally kissed him properly, deepened the kiss and tried to ignore Liam’s frantic moans. He licked into his mouth, taking control, feeling Liam returning the kiss and clutching at Louis’ waist. “I fucking want to, alright?” Louis hissed, and Liam flinched and looked a bit afraid, but he nodded.

Louis held out his arms; Liam willingly went into them. “Now sleep, okay?”

 

 

 


	2. part two

*

At some point during the night, Liam woke up but Louis was still asleep. He felt this yearning to see the other boys, to see how they were, if they liked him, if he could do anything for them. There was a room next to the one he was currently in, and another room opposite. Liam wanted to go into this one.

He knocked, lightly, and heard a groan from the other side. Liam knocked again, waiting for someone to tell him it was alright for him to come in, and instead he heard creaking noises and then the door was swinging open.

“What the fuck,” Harry had said, leaning against the doorway wearing nothing but his boxers. He looked angry, which made Liam flinch, but he didn’t move and instead blinked up at Harry. This was the boy that did not like him, Liam thought.

“Sorry,” Liam whispered, resisting the urge to look down and blush because apparently these boys didn’t like it when he did that, and all he wanted to do was make them happy. That’s what he was here for, making them happy.

Harry grimaced and sighed. “Does Lou know you’re walking about?” he said this whilst tugging on Liam’s arm and pulling him further out of the room. “I’ll bet he doesn’t.”

“I just wanted…” Liam didn’t know what to say. “I just needed… I needed something, and I thought I’d come here, but you don’t like me- I can, I can leave.”

Harry didn’t deny anything that Liam had just said. “I think you should go back to Lou’s room,” he said gently. “I really don’t think I have what you’re looking for.”

*

The next day, all of the boys minus Liam and Niall went off to get Liam some more clothes and some bedding of his own. Originally Louis had wanted to stay behind, but Niall had said that it wasn’t fair that he got all of the interaction with Liam. Niall wanted Liam too, wanted to spend time with him and get to know him like Louis and even Zayn had managed to do. It wasn’t fair that he barely knew the boy, and he was supposed to be his, too. Zayn had tried to argue, but Harry had grabbed his arm and said, “Let’s just fucking go, please.”

At one point all of the boys minus Liam were going to go, but the thought made Liam whimper and curl up in on himself from where he was perched on the sofa, and none of the boys liked to see him like that. They were supposed to be looking after him, but since he’d got here Liam had just looked completely miserable, and the boys knew they must have been doing something wrong –already- but they just didn’t know what, didn’t know what they could do to make it any better.

“You alright, Liam?” Niall asked, sitting next to Liam and widening his eyes in shock when Liam wrapped his entire body around Niall’s, every inch touching him, like he couldn’t do anything else but be pressed up against him in all possible ways.

Liam was sniffing Niall, sticking his nose and entire face into every crook of Niall’s body, and breathing heavily like he liked what he saw. “I’m sorry!” he said, scrambling away, so far he actually fell off of the sofa and stared up at Niall. “I can’t believe I… I’m so rude. I didn’t mean to!”

Niall looked shocked. “What’s up? Is there something wrong?”

Liam looked tormented. He wracked his fingers, looking around the room widely like he could escape. “I’m really sorry,” he said, head down. “It’s just I need- I need touch. I haven’t… I haven’t had anything and my body… it needs it, I can’t control it.”

Niall nodded, and reached out to Liam. “Do you want… like a cuddle or something?”

Liam looked relieved and actually crawled towards Niall, and then relaxed into his arms, taking comfort in Niall’s scent, the fact he was all around Liam. Niall was pressing tiny little kisses into Liam’s neck, and Liam was in shock but it felt so good, to have someone finally show him some affection, that he didn’t say anything but couldn’t stop the pitiful moans from escaping his lips. “I belong to you,” he finally said brokenly. “Please, take me, please.”

“I can’t,” Niall groaned. “The other boys will kill me and I can’t take advantage of you…”

Liam started crying, he couldn’t help it. “Please, please!” he begged. “It wouldn’t be taking advantage, I want it, I need it… I’ve four of you here and I’m not making one of you happy, I can’t take it.”

Niall’s instincts took over. Having a Submissive begging you, telling you they’re not happy and all you needed to do to change that was hold them, take them, was too much for any Dominant not to notice and pay attention to. In Niall’s defence, it wasn’t his rational mind working he scooped Liam into his arms properly and kissed him, roughly, not even attempting to be gentle. He had Liam underneath him on the couch before he could even take in a breath, grinded down on him, his hand roughly grabbing Liam’s waist, fingers digging in.

Liam’s only good t-shirt was ripped off of him and Niall began to frantically bite and lick up his chest: Liam was blinking ten times the dozen, making whimpering squeaks, trying to hold onto Niall anywhere but not being able to reach anywhere so settling for having his hands on Niall’s chest. To an outsider it might have looked like Liam was trying to ward Niall off, but both boys knew that this wasn’t the case.

He was finally getting what he wanted though, finally getting what he’d desired with a need so strong, it pained him. A Submissive that was rejected by their Dominant(s) didn’t live long; they wilted away, the shame and lack of affection ending them. Having four Dominants in the house, and being able to feel their want for him had driven Liam completely wild, and he was so glad to finally get one of them, any of them.

He was long gone, revelling in the pleasure that Niall was bringing him, when the door slammed open and he heard Harry’s voice: “What the fuck are you doing, Horan?”

And then Niall wasn’t on top of him, he was across the room, on the ground, and Harry was above him, picking him up. “I can’t believe that beast,” Harry hissed. “Don’t you worry about it. He won’t be doing that to you again.”

Liam felt secure in Harry’s arms, so catered for, but he needed to clear up Harry’s mistake. “Not forced,” he mumbled, Harry’s massive body pressed against him, making his brain all foggy. Harry stopped.

“What?”

Liam shook his head. “Not forced. Didn’t make me.”

Harry looked over at Niall with disgust. Zayn and Louis were still by the car, bringing in more bags, but when they came in, Harry knew they’d be just as furious. “See, Niall?” he snarled. “You’ve done a right number on him. I told you, you know what he’s like- you’ve convinced him he wants you all over him-”

Niall had gone silent.

“He didn’t force me!” Liam shouted, and Harry almost dropped him with surprise, because it was the loudest he had ever heard Liam speak before. “I wanted to, I needed him to, because none of the rest of you will and I need it.”

Oh, Harry thought. Because it… it really was that simple. They only needed to love Liam… show him some affection, and he’d be happy. He didn’t want lots of money and physical gifts, just attention and the boys. But Harry, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t be like that, treat Liam like some of shit, something not worthy of being a human. He wasn’t raised like that, and he refused to be part of it. Liam needed to grow up and realise that he deserved respect- he was too good, too worthy to be treated like someone’s property.

“You touch him again, willing or not, and I’ll fucking kill you,” he shot at Niall, and it was out of jealousy, not out of morals. Harry was afraid he was losing his morals when it came to Liam.


	3. part three

Liam’s in the bed with Louis again, pressed up against him as close as he can get before Louis politely tells him to back off. Louis follows that up by promising that he does find Liam terribly attractive, but it would be wrong to do anything with him without all of the other boys there. Liam wishes he was sharing a room with Niall, because he had been completely willing to touch Liam and give him what he wanted.

The day had been a complete blur since the others had come home and caught Niall with Liam. Harry had snarled at the others that he’d definitely seen Niall groping Liam, and no matter how much Liam pleaded that it hadn’t been like that, it had been willing from both sides, none of the other boys had listened.

Niall had cracked under the pressure, not even denying anything the other boys accused him of, as if he was so guilty about what had happened that he felt that maybe he had taken advantage of Liam and that it shouldn’t happen again. When they’d gotten the pet, none of them had expected any of this to happen and they really didn’t know what to do about all of it.

Liam bits at his lip. He wants… his first touch of affection from the boys had put him more at peace than he ever had been before. He wants that again. He’s never been shown any affection like that before: no one at the store had liked him; he’d been the only pet without any friends. He’d constantly been told that he was ugly, that he’d never find a single dominant willing to take him on. The fact that he’d actually found four had shocked everyone and Liam just wanted to prove that he could handle four, that he was strong but a good submissive.

He wants to be touched again, to prove that he was a good pet and could please all of the boys. He turns around so that he’s facing Louis, who is still awake. Liam knows that Louis struggles to sleep when he’s with Liam, because his instincts are screaming at him to take the boy for his own and mark him. Liam stares up at Louis with wide, pleading eyes.

“You don’t have to resist,” Liam whispers, wrapping his entire body around Louis’. “Please, take me. We don’t have to tell anyone. I promise.”

Liam thinks he will die if he doesn’t get something from Louis, right now. He needs Louis inside him, he needs to feel Louis inside of him, needs to have Louis releasing inside of him. Liam’s not in heat, but this feels nearly as strong as a heat. He’s desperate to have Louis right now, and he refuses to do anything unless he gets it.

“Liam,” Louis says in shock, trying to pull away and failing. “Please, just sleep.”

But Liam’s crying now, and Louis can’t look away from him when he’s doing that. “I’m burning up,” he says brokenly. “I need you; I beg you, take me. I’ll do anything for you.”

Louis is so hard at this point that it hurts. He’s trying to resist, trying to pull away from Liam, but Liam’s pressing himself up against Louis, so close Louis can see his individual tears.

“I know you don’t want me,” Liam says in a small voice. “I know you don’t want me here and I’m awful, a rubbish submissive. I won’t speak; make a sound, unless you want me to. I promise. But please, can you take me? Please?”

“Liam, you are gorgeous, and you have no idea just how much I want to do this right now. But you’ve had a traumatic day, and I’m supposed to be looking after you. Please, just sleep.”

Liam shrivels up in on himself. He’s failed. Again.

*

Liam goes into heat after he’s been with the boys for three weeks. He’s finally started talking a little bit without prompt, and he doesn’t act shocked when the boys expect him to sit at the dinner table with him and he’s stopped begging Louis nightly for sex. In fact he doesn’t even stay in the same room as Louis any longer: Louis moved into Niall’s room, so Liam gets Louis’ room to himself. The first thing Liam asked for was a King sized bed, because he was still hoping that he’d be able to be with the boys all at the same time, one day, in the (extremely) distant future.

Liam has been in heat before, but usually he’s drugged up for it. He’d only stopped taking his medication the night that Zayn, Louis, Niall and Harry had bought him. He’d been excited for this heat at first, thinking he’d have four dominants to help him, but now he was dreading it. He was almost 100% certain that none of the boys would be willing to help him through.

He wonders if they ever think about the fact that they’ve completely wasted their money on him, considering he hasn’t had sex with any of them, he doesn’t tidy or clean the house, and he hasn’t even left the house yet apart from the times when he goes to stand on the balcony for some fresh air.

The entire house is rich with Liam’s scent, a dark, musty scent that none of the boys can ignore. It goes straight to their crotches, making all of them painfully hard the second they smell it: Niall drops the plate of food he’s carrying to the table, Zayn blushes furiously and tries to cover himself, Harry curses and Louis bashes the table.

“Fuck, I’m such an idiot,” he swears. “I should have seen this coming.”

Liam has been in his room all day. The boys had thought maybe he was just sulking and left him to it, but now they realised it was a different story. They’d never experienced a submissive in heat before: you couldn’t trace the scent unless you were at least eighteen, and if your parents had a sex pet you weren’t permitted to share them once you became of age so you had to leave your house. All of the boys had moved out of their houses on their eighteenth birthday: Louis first, then Zayn, Niall, and Harry.

They didn’t know much about this: they knew they should have researched this, but in all honesty they hadn’t put as much thought as they should have into buying a pet and they were completely stuck with what to do. They knew that being in heat was ridiculously painful if you didn’t have a dominant serving you or if you weren’t on medication. Liam had only arrived wearing the clothes on his back so they knew he didn’t have any drugs that could help, and Louis hadn’t thought to buy any.

They couldn’t leave Liam in all that pain. It would be cruel, and it went against their nature, they were supposed to be looking after him and that would be a complete failure on their parts. In any case, they were in the house with a submissive who was in heat which was something that any dominant would find impossible to resist: none of the boys were sure they could leave the house and get away at this point.

“Well, there goes that whole not sleeping with it thing,” Harry curses. He hits the table with his hand. “Fuck! Why didn’t any of us foresee this?”

“Don’t call Liam it,” Zayn said with gritted teeth. “This isn’t his fault.”

Harry doesn’t reply. He turns to face the doorway, where in the next room; Liam is suffering, sending out that musky scent with every breath he was taking. It’s getting stronger, so strong Harry doesn’t think he can resist it anymore. He makes a move to get to his feet, then remembers himself and makes himself sit back down, adjusting himself to try and make his hard on a bit more comfortable, and completely failing.

He instead settles for closing his eyes, but he can hear footsteps around him and he flashes his eyes back open and glances around. He sees that he’s in the room on his own: he catches a flash of blonde as Niall leaves the room after Louis and Zayn. They’ve stopped resisting.

Well, Harry thinks. If they can’t control themselves, then neither can I.

*

Liam’s in the middle of the bed, sheets on the floor, completely naked and red all over. His face is wet with his tears and he is making pitiful little sounds and fisting what remains of the bed covers, practically ripping them with the force of his turmoil.

When he sees the boys standing in the doorway his until body falls with his relief and he closes his eyes, panting. His erection almost reaches his belly button, but he’s not making an attempt to touch himself like any of the boys would have done.

“Please,” he chokes out, and that’s all he can say before the boys are on him.

Finally, he’s getting what he wants, what he needs. Zayn’s hands are all over him, stroking him, playing with his nipples. Niall’s desperately holding Liam’s cock in his palm and he’s jerking it, Liam’s body providing natural lubrication. Louis’ got Liam’s head in his hand, kissing him roughly, not hesitating to get his tongue inside of Liam’s mouth.

Harry’s fingers are by Liam’s entrance, and that’s enough to make Liam howl and hold onto Zayn before he falls down, and he’s begging, chanting all of the boys’ names: “HarryZaynNiallLouis, yes, yes Zayn! Harry please, Niall- oh god, Louis” and he doesn’t know what’s going on anymore but his dominants are going to take care of this for him, they’re going to make this all better for him again.

Liam wants to make them happy, too. This is the first time they’ve tried to have sex with him and he wants it to be perfect so that they’ll want to do it again with him. It’ll be easier for them than Liam during this heat, because it will last ten hours and although usually the dominant must release inside their submissive as much as possible, there are four of them so they’ll be able to have rest and take turns. But Liam, Liam’s going to have to take four of them for ten hours, and he’s scared but he trusts that his dominants will get him through this.

It’s Louis first, and this feels right to Liam because Louis’ the first one that Liam got to know best, and he’s always gone the extra mile to look after Liam. Liam stretches his lips around Zayn’s cock at the same time as Louis pushes inside him, his natural lubrication from the heat making it so that there’s no need for lube. Louis shouts out when he bottoms out, because he’s never actually slept with anyone before, but instinct takes over and he’s pushing in and out of Liam in an easy rhythm. Each thrust pushes Liam’s mouth further down on Zayn, and makes Liam whimper and try to raise his hips up to meet Louis’.

Liam’s hips start to ache already from the position that he’s in: Louis is above him, and Zayn’s bent over him too. Niall’s still holding onto his aching erection, creating a friction that is almost too much and is so delicious that Liam’s over stimulated with everything that he’s feeling.

Louis starts to quicken his pace as he begins to reach his climax, and he’s determined for Liam to come at the same time as him too. What will give Liam release from the pain he’s in isn’t really just his own orgasm: it’s his dominants’, he needs his dominants to orgasm inside him before he can feel alright again. So when Louis comes, just a beat before Liam, releasing inside of Liam, both of the boys howl and Liam starts to cry from how good all of this feels. Then a beat later he’s joining Louis, in his first ever orgasm, which makes his eyes water.

Louis’ pulling out and Liam just wants someone to cuddle him through this first experience, but he can feel Niall lining himself up where Louis’ just left and pushing the head of himself in, and instead Liam cries out, the feel of Niall entering him and pushing into his prostate so soon after his first orgasm too much for him to handle, but at the same time he doesn’t want the feeling to ever end because it feels so good, too good.

Niall’s pace is much quicker than Louis’, and he doesn’t go as deep into Liam as Louis did, and each thrust makes the headboard bump into the wall and for Liam’s head to be pushed back, the bed creaking as Niall presses Liam down into the mattress. Zayn’s no longer in Liam’s mouth, but Harry is- Liam isn’t sure when or how that happened, or if Zayn finished in his mouth, but at this point he honestly has no idea who’s fucking him and who’s stroking him- nor does he care. He realises gut wrenchingly that he loves these four boys, despite only having known them for three weeks. He feels like if they ever left him, stopped doing this for him, he’d break, and the thought alone makes him feel very small and vulnerable.

It’s not long before Niall is grunting and coming with one last thrust inside of Liam. He kisses Liam on the lips softly as he pulls out, and Liam winces because he’s starting to feel sore already and he’s only an hour into his heat. He honestly has no idea how he’s going to get through another nine hours of this. Niall’s not satisfied until Liam has come again too: he doesn’t understand just how oversensitive Liam is right now and how much it’s going to hurt for him to come this many times in one night, and Liam’s too busy groaning and whimpering to tell him. This orgasm lasts even longer than the last time and Liam feels completely empty when it’s over.

The rest of it is a blur. Liam can tell when Zayn’s inside him, because he’s more gentle than the others and he flexes his hips so slow it’s delicious, making Liam want to rake his hands down Zayn’s back: and so he does, leaving red marks all over Zayn’s skin. Liam has never felt so full up before, and he doubts that any submissive ever has. The idea of four dominants sharing one submissive is so unheard of, so shocking, that Liam wishes he could thank his dominants for making him so lucky. He doubts any submissive has ever felt this good, this loved, before. 

When Harry’s inside him Liam’s reached his limit. He cries out, half from pain, half from pleasure when Harry enters him because at this point he’s already gone for three rounds and he can barely handle the feel of Harry shoving himself inside of him, and Harry’s slightly larger than the other boys and it’s the largest that Liam’s been stretched before. He’s never felt so small, underneath Harry, as the much taller boy shoves himself in and out of Liam again and again, kissing his neck and lips roughly as he does so. This time when Liam comes out, his slit opens up around nothing: he’s completely empty, there’s nothing to come out. Louis looks fascinated at the sight of Liam experiencing a dry orgasm, and he fingers Liam’s slit slowly but backs away when Liam whimpers and pushes at his hand.

They lay in a massive puppy pile for a rest when Harry’s finished, Liam at the bottom, panting and sore, but happy to have all of his dominants around him, finally.

Through the night, Liam wakes up many times, moaning or crying, and one of the other boys will take the hint and push inside of him and service him.

Liam’s so happy, even after ten straight hours and feeling sore, because his dominants want him, he finally got them, and he hopes that things will get better from now on.


	4. part four

When Liam wakes up the next day he is alone in the room. Well- as he tries to turn his body and fails, he feels a movement in the bed beside him and he realises he’s not. It’s not a massive movement so he knows it’s only one of the boys.

Liam’s so in tune with them, his body has been so created that it’s literally built in him to know, that he knows the boy beside him is Zayn. He can smell Zayn’s subtle spicy scent; can tell it’s him from his breathing pattern. He knows that Zayn is naked beside him. He can feel, from concentrating, that’s he’s clean: all traces of the others being inside him has gone, and he can deduce from Zayn being beside him that he was the one that cleared him up.

Liam likes Zayn. He likes how secure Zayn makes him feel, how he looks after Liam like’s the most precious thing in the world. That he doesn’t try to demand Liam’s attention like the others, he’s more subtle with his approach, ensuring that Liam’s always alright. Liam won’t speak up for himself so Zayn does this for him. When Harry makes a sharp comment or tells Liam to do something- like when Niall comes in late from University one day and Harry tells Liam to sit in his lap so Niall can have his own seat- Zayn will be the one to chip in, whereas Liam will nod quietly and do what he’s told. He’s not comfortable sitting in their laps, not to an extent. He is in a sense that he wants their affection, to be close to them.

But Liam still feels sometimes as if he’s an intrusion and he feels so strange when Harry wraps an arm around his waist and tucks Liam underneath him. He’d also rather sit in the middle of all of them, touching them all and knowing they’re all there, than be in just one of their laps, separate from the others.

Liam thinks, when he feels these yearnings of love for the boys, that he probably fell for Zayn first. He does of course, love all of the boys equally, he couldn’t be any other way. But it had been so easy to trust Zayn, to talk around him, be himself around him. With Louis Liam hadn’t realised he was in love until one night he woke up with Louis wrapped around him, not aroused, just holding him, and it had felt so right Liam knew he was in love. With Niall it had been more gradual, and Liam remembers the feeling of actually falling in love, the way his heart had seemed to expand to accept Niall into it and he’d looked at the boy and felt nothing but pure love for him.

Niall’s the least likely to treat Liam any different. Sometimes he forgets that there’s a difference between them, because Liam’s only three inches shorter than Niall and although he’s a lot skinnier and fragile looking, Niall is closest to him in height. Niall sees Liam as such an equal, capable of doing everything that he wants for himself. He’ll joke around with Liam like he’s known him forever, offer him beer, but of course there’s the underlying urge to care for him. But if Liam hadn’t been a pet, if he’d been just any Submissive, he thinks he might have gone for Niall to build a relationship with because with him it’s easy, carefree. Just like Niall. Niall has no idea what’s going on, just like Liam, and Liam loves this.

Loving Harry had been scary and it had been dark. Liam had been petrified to fall for Harry, because the idea of Harry ever returning this affection in the same way had been something Liam didn’t think would happen. It wasn’t that Harry was cold, he was actually too hot, full of passion and life and beliefs that were different to everyone else’s. Harry was the tallest of all of the boys by miles, and he was so toned and muscled that he filled the room not only with presence, but sheer size. Liam wanted Harry to carry him everywhere, hold him down with brute force and fuck him, but adored the way that Harry was so gentle with him too. After Liam had noticed this it had been completely impossible not to love him.

*

So when Liam wakes up he’s sad that not all of the boys are there but he’s glad that if there’s only one, it’s Zayn. Zayn will help him understand last night’s events, explain what’s going to happen next, in a way that Liam will understand and appreciate. Niall would be confused and confuse Liam, Louis would just come and say it, and Harry likely wouldn’t say anything at all.

He knows Zayn know he’s awake because he’s stroking his shoulder differently, and even that bit of touch makes Liam sight out loud. He doesn’t want to move, doesn’t think he can, because in all honesty he’s had four people in him for ten hours. He feels so weak, so small.

“Morning Li,” Zayn murmurs against his skin, pressing a small kiss to Liam’s neck. Liam flinches and then relaxes into the touch, and tries to turn his body again but he literally cannot move, he feels like he weighs a ton.

“Hi,” Liam whispers, feeling himself blush all over as memories from last night come flooding back. Memories of Niall pushing into him from behind as he tried to fit as much of Harry as he could into his mouth all at once come back to him, the way Liam had desperately lifted his hips up and moaned wantonly, how no matter how much he thought he couldn’t handle anymore pleasure, he took it again and again, the love for all of his boys draining into them in return.

He finally manages to turn his body towards Zayn and almost faints with shock as what he sees: Zayn looks like he’s lost ten pounds overnight. He smiles ruefully and shrugs. “You should see the others,” he tells Liam. “I think I had you the least so I’m a bit stronger. Harry’s not even able to wake up yet.”

Liam’s glowing all over, like he’s suddenly on top of the world. He wants to get up, so he does. He winces when the soreness from last night kicks in, but it’s a slight twinge. It would be worse, he realises, if he hadn’t have been draining his dominants during his heat last night. He’s been taught about this, how the dominant gives the submissive everything they need through their heat, at their own expense. They get so weak, because they give all of their energy and love into their mates.

“Where are they?” he asks Zayn, who’s lying up in the bed watching Liam. It’s the first time Liam has woken up with Zayn, so it’s the first time he’s seen him with natural hair, and he thinks it makes Zayn look softer. There are bags under Zayn’s eyes but he looks so happy, and he’s looking at Liam like he’s the centre of the universe.

“Louis and Niall dragged out Harry last night,” Zayn says. “Or, more in the early hours of this morning. Turns out Harry’s not so good at the whole sharing thing yet. He’ll get better, I’m sure. But they’re all a bit… well, you’ll see, I suppose. I think we just thought it was best if you woke up with me.”

“What happens now?” Liam asks desperately. “After last night, are we going back to what it was like before?”

Zayn closes his eyes and gestures for Liam to come into his arms. It’s a credit to Liam that he manages to resist and not give up until he gets his answer. Well, until Zayn raises his eyebrows and Liam can’t resist anymore, and he’s climbing back into the bed and letting Zayn hold him.

“The boys and I,” Zayn says carefully, “Don’t want you to feel like we’re pressuring you into doing anything you don’t want to. We chose you, you didn’t choose us. No, listen! I know what you’ve said, but we don’t know if that’s what you actually believe or if that’s what you’ve been brought up to think. We want… we want a relationship with you, Liam. A real one. We don’t want you to just be a pet.”

“I don’t understand,” Liam whispered. He doesn’t understand why these boys are like this with him. They knew what they had been getting into when they’d bought Liam; they’d seemed fine with everything, the idea of Liam just being a sexual object. He doesn’t understand why they want to know him as a person, why they care what he thinks, wanting him to speak to them. No one’s cared about him before, so why should they start now?

“We love you, you sap.”

It’s the first time any of the boys have told Liam they loved him, and he had never expected that they would. He loved them, of course did- how could he not? But the thought of them loving him hadn’t gone across Liam’s mind, not once. He doesn’t understand why. He’s so silent, so… so boring, so rubbish, he doesn’t get it at all.

“Love me?” he says without thinking, then stares at Zayn with his mouth wide open, so shocked and confused he can’t close it.

But Zayn’s reaction. He looks angry, and Liam thinks he’s said something wrong, that Zayn’s going to be angry at him. “How could we not?” Zayn practically shouts. It’s as if he’s got added energy from Liam’s words, he sits up straight quickly and fists the bed sheets. “I hate this. I hate they’ve made you feel, how that fucking place has made you like this.”

Liam blinks and his eyes are getting wet.

“I don’t mean I don’t love you, Liam. I mean… I hate how the thought of us loving you doesn’t register. Since you got here, you’ve been begging for sex and touch, but not once have you asked us to love us like you so clearly love us. It’s like you don’t see yourself: how beautiful you are, how perfect you are. It’s amazing how you accept all of us into your hearts, even though we’ve bought you like you’re a piece of meat and treated you like shit since the moment you got here. You’re so gorgeous and decent, and we’re making it our goal to make you realise this too.”

Liam can’t think of anything to say to that, and he doesn’t think that anything could really follow up what Zayn’s just said. He tucks himself up in Zayn’s arms and just cries, cries at how lucky he is to have these four boys who think so much for him, are so desperate to make him happy. He doesn’t know how to thank them enough for what they’ve done for him, just by being with him and seeing him the person he is. For the first time, Liam feels like ‘submissive’ isn’t something degrading, it’s beautiful, something to be proud of. You don’t have to be physically powerful to have an effect on something or someone, and there’s nothing wrong with accepting care and knowing that people will do things for you that you don’t feel you could do yourself. 

*

Since the boys had bought him, Liam hadn’t left their flat. He’d seen no reason to: it wasn’t as if he knew anyone apart from the boys, so there was no one to visit. He preferred to stay inside, where he was safe, and where he could be with his boys.

The boys had stayed in the flat most of the time with Liam too, especially after his heat because they had all been so weak that they didn’t have the energy to really do anything else. Zayn hadn’t been lying when he’d told Liam what a state the other boys had been in, he’d been deadly serious, and Liam had found this out when he’d gone to find his other dominants once Zayn had fallen asleep again.

Liam was still quiet and extremely shy, and he would do anything just for a touch from these boys, but he was slowly beginning to feel like this place was his home, and he felt right when he was here. He was still finding it hard to think that these four boys actually wanted him, that he’d genuinely found happiness, but slowly, day by day he was starting to think that he was getting it.

He still knocked when he was outside Louis and Niall’s room, because he wasn’t quite ready to just walk in to rooms like all of the other boys were. He heard a grunt in reply and he pushed the door slowly open.

Louis and Niall were covering Harry on the bed, all in a pile. There were shadows underneath all of their eyes and Liam could see Harry’s sharp collarbone from the doorway, when usually it was covered by muscle. Louis and Niall are the only ones awake, and they turn their eyes to him when he opens the door. Liam stays in the doorway, unsure of whether or not he should come in, and remembering last night with frightening clarity. He doesn’t know if they’re going to be the same as Zayn, or if Harry will turn him away again, if Niall will freak out again, if Louis will turn him down like he has so many times before.

“Hi,” Louis smiles instead and he probably tries to gesture for Liam to come into his arms but he can’t move. “Come here.”

Liam bites his lip and looks down on the floor. “You want me here?” he asks, and he’s not just asking if they want him here right now. He wants to know if they want him here, in this house, near them and with them. He wants to know if they want him just to be here, or if they want him properly, want him like they had him last again. If they’re having second thoughts and they don’t want him at all anymore, they want to send him back.

Louis hears the unspoken questions in Liam’s answer, and it’s very firmly that he says, “Yes.”

So Liam goes over to the bed, and he perches on the side of it, watching Harry continue sleeping, and Niall, who’s curled around Harry. Niall could pass for a very tall Submissive with his height, and Liam can’t help but bitterly think that Niall looks perfect underneath all of the boys, unlike him. Louis strokes Liam’s arm slowly.

“Are you feeling very tired?” Liam asks after a moment, and the sound of his voice so near, gentle and unsure, rouses Harry, who moves closer to where the voice is coming from and drops his head into Liam’s lap.

He starts snoring quietly again.

Liam suddenly has a lapful of Harry and he strokes his hair, looking up at Louis with wonder and surprise because this is the first proper bit of affection Harry’s given him. Too bad he had to be asleep to do it. Louis just grins down at him and winks.

“Told you Harry would come around.”

Liam nods. “So… are you feeling tired, then?” he repeats, and Niall groans. Liam had almost forgotten he was awake, he’d been so quiet.

“Feel like someone’s squashed the life outta me,” Niall grumbles. “Harry, quit hogging Liam.”

Harry doesn’t move one inch and Liam doesn’t stop stroking his curly hair. Louis carries on rubbing Liam on the arm, and eventually Niall curses and goes back to sleep.

Liam feels like a family.

*

But eventually the boys do have to go out again, because they have university and jobs to uphold, and they can’t take Liam everywhere with them. Most days, at least one of the boys are home, but as it starts getting closer to Christmas, the boys have to be out now more than ever and they leave Liam on his own for the first time.

It does not get well. When they tell Liam they have no choice but to go: Louis and Zayn have lectures, and Harry and Niall have work, Liam nods but he starts to whimper when they start putting on their shoes and jackets and leave. They leave him Zayn’s phone, seeing as Louis and Zayn will be together anyways and they want Liam to have a way of contacting all of the boys. Louis decides after today that they need to get Liam his own phone (which sets Liam off because no pet has ever had a phone or anything like that of their own before because it’s just not heard of).

It’s only going to be for a couple of hours. Louis and Zayn will be coming straight home after their lectures, and Niall and Harry only have short shifts. But it’s the first time Liam’s been without at least one of the boys and it’s hard on all of them, because none of them want to leave Liam on his own.

Liam cries whilst they’re gone, and he wants to phone them and beg them to come home to him but he knows that would be annoying and that the boys wouldn’t like it if he did that. At this point though he’s desperate, broken and he doesn’t know what to do. It’s only two hours, but it feels like forever to Liam and he’s almost convinced himself that his boys aren’t coming back.

Of course, two hours turns into three which turns into four and by this point Liam has curled himself up on the sofa, in a tiny ball, and he hasn’t moved from this position in almost forty five minutes. He figures if he closes his eyes tightly enough he’ll go to sleep and he can pretend it’s just night time, because he can do that, he used to sleep on his own. He now sleeps with all of the other boys (they’ve mastered the fine art of fitting into one bed) and so it’s hard to do this, hard to imagine a time he didn’t sleep with the other boys.

*

Louis and Zayn come home first, laden with bags. They’d gone Christmas shopping, for decorations and presents because usually they didn’t make a big deal out of Christmas but they figured that Liam had probably never had a proper Christmas before and they wanted to make it special for him.

They see Liam asleep on the sofa, scrunched up into a tiny impossible position, and his face is wet and they realise how stupid they’ve been, how thoughtless. They’ve left him on his own for hours and it’s no wonder he looks as broken as he does. Zayn immediately goes over to Liam and gathers him into his arms, rocking him back and forth. Liam is so small in Zayn’s arms, so small and slender, and Zayn feels like he’s holding the world in his arms. And in reality he is, because Liam is Zayn’s world, he’s all of their worlds.

“We’re so sorry, Li, we just went to get some things,” Louis says concernedly, dropping all of the bags in the hallway and kissing Liam on the forehead. “Harry and Niall will be back too.”

“You said two hours,” Liam whimpers. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“We’re always coming back to you, alright?” Zayn says sternly. “You need to know this.”

*

Liam wakes up one morning and goes downstairs and gets the fright of his life. The entire house is an explosion of red and green. He later learns that this is because Louis is completely reckless to the extreme when armed with a bit of tinsel, but at this moment in time he doesn’t know what the hell he’s looking at.

Harry’s on the floor with Zayn, tongue sticking out, cutting out pieces of paper in deer patterns, and Zayn’s colouring them all in. Niall grins at Liam from the sofa, where he’s drinking some beer and leaving the decorating to everyone else.

“Hey, Li,” Niall grins. “It’s almost Christmas!”

Liam’s face doesn’t register that he’s understood what Niall’s just told him. He asks instead, “Why is there a tree growing in the living room?” and feels very hurt when Niall starts laughing at him.

“It’s a Christmas tree,” Niall says. “Haven’t you ever seen one before?”

Liam shakes his head.

“Christmas isn’t Christmas without a tree,” Louis walks into the room and gives Liam a little kiss on the lips. “We left the angel for you to put on the top, if I give you a lift will you be able to reach?”

Louis’ stuffed an angel into Liam’s hand, swooped Liam into his arms, and lifted him up to the top of the tree before Liam can even reply. Sometimes Liam finds it annoying how easy all of the other boys find it to lift him up, and other times he loves it so much it makes him dizzy. This is one of the times when he gets dizzy, because Niall, Louis, Zayn and Harry all watch as he puts the angel on top of the tree and smiles down at them.

He loves how they share everything with him, get him involved. They had saved the angel for Liam to put on top of the tree because, as everyone knows, it’s the most fun part and they wanted him to do it. It’s like they knew it would be his first Christmas.

*

It’s December 16th and Liam’s sitting on Niall’s lap wearing one of Harry’s Christmas jumpers. Liam’s completely gotten used to sitting on all of the boys’ laps by now, and he doesn’t try to make himself weigh less or awkwardly offer to move every couple of minutes. Liam actually has his own Christmas jumpers, but everyone’s got used to the fact that Liam nearly never wears his own clothes. He likes to wear Zayn’s t-shirts, Harry’s jumpers, Niall’s hats and Louis’ socks (which are so massive on Liam that it makes the boys laugh).

He likes how tiny he looks and is in their clothes, he likes how they look at him when he’s wearing their clothes.

The boys are all watching TV, but Liam’s facing into Niall’s chest and his arms are wrapped around his neck. Niall’s are wrapped around Liam’s waist firmly. “I’m really tired,” Liam mutters into Niall’s chest, and Niall kisses his neck fondly and tells him he can sleep in Niall’s arms if he really wants to.

That’s another thing. It’s very rare that Liam actually sleeps alone, or that his body ever touches the mattress. He likes to sleep on his boys, any of the boys. Niall’s his personal favourite to sleep on because he always holds Liam so tight, whereas the other boys are gentler because they’re scared to hurt Liam. Liam tries to avoid sleeping on Louis if he can, because the eldest can never be still for more than a couple of minutes, he’s always shaking his leg or twitching and it’s hard to get comfortable underneath him.

And then when it comes to being carried around or held whilst he’s awake, Liam goes to Harry the most because he’s the tallest and makes Liam feel ridiculously safe when he’s in his arms. Louis’ the one who can make Liam laugh the most, tickling him, or make him the hottest quickest when he’s in the bedroom (or out of it, at this stage). Zayn is Liam’s rock. Without Zayn Liam would break into pieces because Zayn keeps him together, keeps him whole.

It may have taken a while, and a lot of heavy feelings, but Liam is the happiest he’s ever been and he’s starting to believe that these boys actually are his, and he deserves them.

He can’t wait for Christmas because he knows his dominants are going to make it so perfect for them all. 

*

It’s the week before Christmas and Liam has fallen asleep on the sofa watching television with Harry. Zayn’s out buying Liam’s present with Niall, and they won’t tell Liam what they’ve gotten him. Not that Liam had actually asked: when the four boys had told him that they were getting him a gift, he’d cried because no one’s ever bought him a present or anything at all without wanting something from him before. And then when he’d just calmed down and stopped clutching Louis like he was his lifeline, he’d realised that he couldn’t even buy his dominants a present because he didn’t have a job or any real source of income.

Sometimes Liam wishes he was stronger. Just a little bit, so that he could maybe contribute something more to this relationship that he’s in with these four boys. He knows that part of the reason the boys… love him, is because he’s so small and vulnerable compared to them and they adore looking after him. And he doesn’t want to lose that, but he can’t help but feel as if he’s the lacking part of the relationship at times because he barely even leaves the house and if the boys have to leave him on his own for any length of time he has a complete breakdown.

Louis’ the only one who hasn’t had his last lecture at university yet so he’s been out of the house since early that morning. So Harry’s the only one that’s stayed home with Liam, and as per usual Liam’s curled himself up in Harry’s lap and fallen asleep when the TV’s only been on for a few minutes.

Harry doesn’t think that Liam’s going to wake up for a while, so after rubbing Liam’s back for a few moments, he’s about to drop off himself, happy with his submissive in his arms, but Liam speaks against his chest before he can.

“Harry, d’you think I’d be allowed to get a job?”

Harry’s so shocked at what Liam’s just asked that his mouth drops open and he doesn’t reply for quite a while. He feels at first like maybe the boys have done this all wrong, but then he decides that maybe it’s a good thing that Liam’s making these sort of decisions by himself. Normally the boys never get to hear his actual opinion and Harry hates the idea of them having a pet who just never thought for themselves and wasn’t treated like a real human.

But he has to wonder what’s brought this on. If this is Liam wanting to be a bit more independent, then although it goes against Harry’s nature, Harry’s thoughts on sex pets are strong enough that he thinks he and the other boys would be alright with Liam maybe getting a job.

Harry doubts that this is Liam wanting to be independent, though. He thinks it’s likely Liam is trying to be less of a burden, wanting to earn money so that he can contribute to the household in some financial way and that’s just not allowed in Harry’s books. The whole point is that they’re supposed to look after Liam and cater to his every need, and in return he caters for their sexual needs. And in this socially weird relationship, the four dominants want Liam to love them and to accept their love too. Liam getting a job because he thinks he’s not good enough is completely not allowed.

“What’s this about?” he asks slowly, lifting Liam’s head by his chin so that he’s looking at him. He can tell from the way that Liam’s trying not to meet his eye that something has brought this on, something that Harry’s not going to be happy about. “Look at me, Liam.”

It’s the first time that any of the boys have used a direct command on Liam before, and the change in his tone is noticeable enough that Liam shivers, and lifts his eyes to meet Harry’s without protest.

“I thought,” Liam said, and the idea’s already sounding stupid to him now, “that maybe if I got a job. I could buy you all a present for Christmas maybe?”

And then Harry’s laughing and he kisses Liam, wrapping his arms around him properly and bringing him in for a proper embrace. “Oh Liam,” Harry grins. “You’re not getting a job just to give us presents. And even if you got a job, you wouldn’t be getting paid until after Christmas.”

Liam’s face falls. None of the boys have ever explained wages to him before, or how it all works. Liam had thought that maybe if he got a job before Christmas, he could get some money and go out and buy something to say thank you to his boys, thank you for taking him in and making him feel so special and loved.

*

Harry and Liam decide to compromise. Liam’s stuck on the idea of buying something for Louis, Niall, Zayn and Harry and he’s determined that it would be bought out of money that he’d earned, that it wouldn’t just be their money moving in an endless cycle.

Liam tidies the entire house whilst Harry looks on in horror, but he’s promised that he wouldn’t barge in and stop Liam until he’s finished, no matter how much he hates seeing Liam working so hard, using the Hoover, scrubbing… on the floor.

He thinks that if any of the other boys were here and could see this, they’d kill Harry for being such a shitty dominant and they’d persuade Liam that he didn’t need to buy them anything for Christmas and Liam would probably listen to them and believe them. But Harry’s never been good with words, especially around Liam, and he thinks that what would make Liam happier would be people just listening to him, not people telling him what they think he should want.

And Liam certainly looks happy, wearing one of Zayn’s old t-shirts (which completely swamps him) and quietly cleaning. And it doesn’t last for very long, because the boys have always been tidy with their flat, and there’s really not that much for Liam to tidy.

When it’s over, and Harry can relax and breathe again, he takes Liam outside for his first ever shopping trip. It’s sweet, watching Liam walking outside, wrapped up in two jumpers, a coat, a woolly hat, gloves and snow boots that Niall saw at the market and had to buy for him. He looks so excited and he doesn’t let go of Harry’s hand once, practically having to run to keep up with Harry’s long strides.

When they’re in all of the shops, Liam asks Harry very seriously what the boys would like best of all. He gets Niall a snapback (he thinks that’s the safest thing to do, because Niall has hundreds and Liam knows that he likes them). But he gets it personalised, so that on the back it reads “Niall and Liam <3” because Liam thinks that makes it more special, more a present from him than just him going out and buying some hat.

Harry laughs and tells Liam that he thinks Niall’s going to love it.

For Zayn, Liam gets him a sketchbook. It’s one that he’s seen Zayn fawn over in his art books before, with thick paper that can both be painted and drawn on, and it comes with a set of fancy pencils that Liam doesn’t know the names of but they look professional (Harry just shrugs when Liam asks) and again, he gets it personalised.

To Zayn

Lots of love, Li x

Liam hopes that Zayn will draw lots of pictures of all of them together in it and that he’ll hang them up. Zayn’s done some individuals of Liam, which are up in the living room, and doubles of Harry and Niall, Louis and Zayn, but none of all five of them together, not yet. Zayn says it’s because there would be so much life to capture in one picture that he could never do it any justice.

Louis, he’s a hard one and Liam spends a long time trying to find the perfect present for him. He’s not sure what Louis would like. Liam knows that he likes football, so in the end he gets him a personalised football. This present is one that Liam and Harry have to come back to collect in a couple of hours, because Liam gets a picture of the five of them together printed on to it. Because he thinks his personalised/signed theme is a pretty good one and he wants to keep it up.

When it’s time to get Harry’s present, Liam makes him go outside the store so that Harry doesn’t know what he’s getting. Harry rolls his eyes and refuses at first, but in all honesty he finds it impossible to resist the look in Liam’s eyes when he wants something so he awkwardly stands outside waiting for Liam whilst he’s in the store.

Liam gets Harry a “The Beatles” CD. And yes, he has it personalised. He’s so excited when he’s finished, because the boys are all going to get a present from him for Christmas and he’s actually chosen all of them and earned the money to buy them with. 

*

When Christmas actually rolls on by, Liam’s so excited that he reminds Louis of his little sisters every year when the tree would go up and the presents would go under the tree. Liam’s not quite as daring as Louis’ sisters though, who would pick up the presents under the tree with their names on them and rattle them to try and see what was inside. He just bites his lips and stares at the tree that he actually helped put up in awe.

The presents that he’s bought for the boys are hidden at the back, and no one knows about them aside from Harry, and if Liam has his way they won’t find out about them until Christmas day so it can be a proper surprise. He can’t wait to see their expressions when they see them, to see if they like them and can tell how much he put into making the gifts special for them.

Liam can’t help but notice that a whole lot of the presents underneath the tree have his name on them. The boys had hinted at buying him things but he hadn’t actually thought they would. His job was to satisfy them sexually and theirs was to make him feel comforted and safe. That didn’t cover birthdays and Christmas. That just reminds him just how lucky he is to have these four boys around him, so lucky.

*

The boys are shocked to find that Liam has never watched a Christmas film before.

“Not even Elf?” Louis asks him sadly, and Liam shakes his head.

Louis decides that this is something that just cannot be allowed and so on Christmas Eve, the boys all settle down to watch Elf. Liam doesn’t understand most of the references and jokes but he laughs along with the other boys because they’re laughing and he thinks it would be weird if he didn’t laugh too.

He’s curled up into Zayn’s side, and Harry’s absently stroking his thigh from where he’s sitting on Zayn’s left, and Niall has his head resting in Liam’s lap from where he’s sprawled out on the floor. Louis’ on Liam’s left side, he’s leaning his head on Liam’s shoulders.

Louis’ breath is hot on Liam’s neck, and Liam gets distracted by this whilst the other boys are intent on watching Elf. Louis breathes onto Liam’s neck and presses a light kiss onto him, so light it tickles and Liam yelps. Louis starts to laugh and whispers, “Are you ticklish, Li?” and Liam blushes and doesn’t answer.

Harry leans over to look at Louis. “Stop talking through the movie, you’re always doing that,” he grumbles, and then raises his eyebrows at the red tinge on Liam’s cheeks and the mischievous look on Louis’ face. “What are you doing?”

“Liam’s ticklish, aren’t you?” Louis says, grinning, and Liam shakes his head desperately, but Louis can tell immediately that he’s not telling the truth and blows more air on the nape of Liam’s neck and snorts when Liam starts fidgeting again.

“Dudes, it’s just getting to the good part,” Niall moves, and lifts his head out of Liam’s lap. “What are you doing now?”

“I think we’re tickling Liam,” Zayn answers him. “Are we tickling Liam?”

Louis sends Zayn an approving glance. “What do you think, Liam? We’re going to tickle you, yeah?”

Liam isn’t so sure. He’s seriously ticklish, always has been, and the thought of all four of these boys tickling him at the same time is petrifying. But from the grin on Louis’ face, the smirk on Harry’s, the confused look on Niall’s and Zayn rolling his eyes, it’s definitely something that they think would be funny and would please them.

“Okay,” he says quietly, and Harry laughs and leans over to kiss him gently.

“No need to look so scared Li, we’re not going to hurt you,” Harry tells him fondly. “Just playing around, right Lou?”

Louis winks at Liam and then lifts his arm and tickles him. Liam shrieks and he can’t help it, he starts giggling, and he looks so adorable that even Louis stops what he’s doing and stares down at Liam fondly.

Niall goes for Liam’s hot, tickling him between his toes, and Liam accidentally kicks him in the face and his face goes pink from how hard he’s laughing. “Stop, stop,” Liam squeaks, bowled over from the waist from laughter and trying to squirm away from Niall’s insistent fingers.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter where Liam goes, there’s a boy waiting there ready to tickle the hell out of him. On his left is Louis, who keeps on lifting Liam’s arm and going for his armpit, which Liam would find gross but he can’t stop from whimpering and giggling which is really embarrassing but he can’t stop. Then on his right is Zayn, who’s calmer than the other boys but still insistent in his tickling, going for Liam’s sides and making him howl.

Harry’s joined Niall on the floor, and he’s grabbed Liam’s other foot, and now Liam couldn’t move even if he wanted to. He can barely breathe, with the way they’re all tickling him like that, and his giggles have become more like desperate whimpers.

“I’m going to wet myself,” he shouts. Of course, Liam’s version of a shout is Louis taking quietly, but he gets all of the boys’ attention regardless and they stop and Zayn gathers Liam into his arms and kisses him on the forehead.

“You are literally the most adorable thing on the planet,” Zayn tells Liam, who looks down and covers his face.

*

The best part of Christmas, Niall had long ago decided, was the food. Harry made the best Christmas dinner that Niall had ever had, other than his mother of course, and when it came to puddings Zayn made some seriously mouth-watering ones. Niall and Louis both kept far away from the kitchen, because both were absolutely awful at cooking but no one really minded that they tended not to help because they’d rather have edible food. Niall wasn’t too bad at chopping vegetables, so he did that, but Louis doesn’t because no one trusts him with a knife.

So he wonders around, bugging whoever’s nearest to him, getting bored. But now Liam’s here, Louis isn’t bored, because just watching Liam is wonderfully captivating.

Niall’s standing with Liam, because Liam has insisted on helping out and he’s trying to cut like Niall is. Niall’s been doing this for years, and he’s taught himself how to do it the way celebrities do it, quick and nimble with his fingers. Liam tries to copy him but he’s not practiced enough to do it properly and he ends up cutting his finger, just a tiny bit, but it’s the first time that he’s ever cut himself and seen his own blood and he gasps and starts crying.

“Oh shit,” Louis says and sprints over to the counter, gathering up a couple of towels and going towards Liam, wrapping his finger up. It’s not bleeding that much, because Liam hadn’t been putting enough power into cutting the vegetables to do any real damage- which is probably the only thing that saved him from seriously hurting himself.

It’s not a massive cut, and after Harry’s put a plaster on it and Zayn’s kissed it better, it doesn’t hurt anymore and Liam’s calmed down, but Niall tells him (with the agreement of all of the other dominants) that he’s not allowed to go near anything pointy anymore.

Liam’s face falls, but Louis shrugs and leads him into the living room. “It’s fine, Liam, they banned me from pointy things before they even saw me with any.”

*

When the turkey’s in the oven, the boys all pile into the living room and top of Liam (and having four six foot+ boys on top of you is not exactly comfortable) and ask him if he’s alright.

“How’s the finger?” Zayn asks concernedly. “Still hurting?”

“No,” Liam shakes his head. “I think maybe I overreacted.”

“You didn’t at all,” Harry says firmly. “I wish you could have been here the day that Louis got a D on his test. Now that was overreacting.”

“You try staying up until four am revising and then get a D on a test and let’s see how you react, wanker,” Louis shoots back at Harry who smirks on Louis.

Liam loves it when the boys try and make him feel better, when they show just how much they love him by never getting angry at him and just accepting him the way he is. He honestly can’t believe that he has them to himself, and none of them have showed any signs of getting bored of him which is shocking to Liam. It’s just that these four boys are the most perfect dominants that Liam has ever seen, Harry with his broad shoulders and smile, Zayn with his golden brown skin and gentle expression, Niall with his eyes and carefree attitude, Louis with his body and his sharp personality. They’re so perfect and it’s like they’re making it their job to make Liam feel perfect too, and damn if it’s not working, because Liam feels so right in their arms, so cared for, loved.

He wants to thank them for this every day, thank them for making him feel beautiful and like he’s worth something to all of them.

“I love you,” he blinks up at them, and can’t help but smile so broadly his eyes crinkle at the corners when they all say it back and press kisses all over his face.

*

Christmas Day rolls around quickly, even with Liam’s excitement. It feels like it comes around a lot quicker than normal, maybe because there are so many people to buy for and when you’re under a deadline, it feels like things come so much faster.

Louis always wakes up early on Christmas Day, around six, and now he’s sharing a room with Niall he insists on jumping on his bed until Niall swears and gets out of bed. Liam’s in Harry and Zayn’s room for the night, and Louis’ keen to get into their room and drag Liam out so they can finally start Christmas.

Waking up Zayn and Harry is always a chore. That’s why they stay together, because they’re the hardest to wake up whereas Louis and Niall like to wake up early, especially on Christmas Day. But Louis was taking no prisoners today: he wakes Liam up first by picking him up and carrying him out of the room, leaving Niall to shake awake Zayn.

Harry has an instinct for Liam, even when he’s asleep, so when Liam’s taken by Louis Harry instantly wakes up and shakes his hair out of his face, brushes his teeth quickly and follows Louis down the stairs.

By the time Niall comes down with Zayn, who’s rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Louis has lifted all of the presents from underneath the tree and stacked them in different piles around the room, green paper for Harry’s presents, red for Zayn, pink for Louis (Louis doesn’t find this funny at all but he doesn’t complain) blue for Niall, and Liam has pictures of Santa Claus all over his.

The boys make Liam open his presents first. Zayn gets Liam a sketchpad full of pictures that Zayn’s drawn of him, which makes Liam cry and laugh all at the same time because it goes so well with the present that he’d gotten for Zayn. He cries because all of the pictures are breathtakingly beautiful and it’s clear that Zayn’s spent a long time on all of them.

“Thank you,” he says tearfully and Zayn grins and kisses him on the lips, telling him that it’s fine and it was no problem, he hopes Liam likes them.

From Niall, he gets a Batman mask, and Liam has to grin at this because he went to watch The Dark Night with Niall when it had come out and he’d adored it, and he had a tiny obsession with Batman and it was cute that Niall had remembered this and included it in his present for Liam.

“Love you, Li,” Niall grins at him.

Harry gets Liam a new identification bracelet. The boys hate that Liam still has to wear one by law, with a number and a name on it, and when he’s in the house they make him take it off. The only time Liam wears it is when he’s going out with the boys. The one that Harry’s got for him is red and black, and instead of a number he’s got “Liam Styles”, “Liam Horan”, “Liam Malik”, and “Liam Tomlinson” printed on it. This time when Liam cries he can’t stop for an awful while, and he crawls into Harry’s lap whilst Harry rubs his back and tells him he loves him.

Liam’s never had a surname before, just a first name, and the fact that he’s now had his bracelet branded with the surnames of his four dominants is the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to him.

“Come on, open mine,” Louis says impatiently, picking the gift up and shoving it into Liam’s lap. “Come on, you can’t stop now.”

Louis looks proud when Liam unwraps his gift with a squeal, because Louis’ got Liam a hoodie with a picture of all five boys together on the front, and “LIAM” blazed on the back of it.

“It’s big enough that you can pretend it belongs to one of us,” Louis tells him, “And it means that we’re definitely all going to be borrowing it from you so it’ll smell like all of us, too.”

Liam puts it on immediately.

*

The best part of Christmas for Liam is when the boys finish unwrapping their presents from each other and then realise they all still have one gift left. Niall shoots Louis a dirty look when he unwraps the dildo that Louis thought it would be hilarious to get him, and then looks down in surprise.

“I’ve got another one,” he tells everyone. “I thought we were just doing one present this year?”

Liam looks down into his lap and smiles quietly, waiting for the penny to drop. When it does, all of the boys are shouting and wrapping their arms around him and saying, “You didn’t have to get us anything, you sap.”

Niall puts on the “Niall and Liam <3” snapback immediately and doesn’t take it off for the rest of the day. Zayn promises Liam that he’ll draw millions of pictures of the five of them together and repeatedly thanks Liam for the beautiful sketchbook that he’s been given. Louis whoops and instantly begins kicking around the ball that Liam’s got him, until he accidentally hits Zayn in the face with it and Zayn threatens to pop it unless Louis stops playing with it until they get outside.

Liam sees Harry cry for the first time when he unwraps his personalised Beatles CD. Louis and Niall laugh at him, and even Zayn snorts a little, but Liam thinks that Harry is the most adorable person in the world, which is fitting because Harry feels the exact same about Liam.

“You’ve made this the best day of my life,” Liam says, and he’s immediately covered by all four of his dominants cuddling and kissing him.


	5. part five

After Christmas all of the boys are brought back to the earth with shocking clarity. It would figure that after such a perfect couple of weeks, something would have to happen to remind all of the boys that nothing lasts forever and things had to even out eventually.

Zayn’s mother had fallen ill over the holidays, and Zayn had no choice but to go visit her and look after her, because his father (being the dominant of the house) had run himself into the ground trying to look after her. When your submissive is ill, your instincts go on overload and all you can think of is looking after said submissive, even at the own detriment of your health. That was exactly the situation Zayn found himself in.

The problem here is Zayn can’t actually go alone. That would have been bad enough, Liam being separated from one of his dominants for the unforeseeable future. But Zayn needs a companion, because his father is going to go wild having to watch someone else look after his submissive and Zayn needs someone to watch his back and ensure his father’s doing alright, as well. There’s nothing worse than seeing someone else look after what’s yours because you’re unable to do so.

The best thing all around would have been for Zayn and Harry to have gone, or maybe even Zayn and Niall. Not Zayn and Louis, but that’s what happens for two reasons. The first reason is that, as much as they all hate to say it, Niall would not have been able to handle the wrath of a full grown dominant. The closest to a full grown dominant they interact with other than their families is Harry, and Niall has never once won a scrapple with him before.

The second reason is that Harry point blank refuses, even though it would make the most sense because he’s the strongest. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be there to support Zayn, because he did more than anything. He loved Zayn to pieces, they all did. But Harry thinks about leaving Liam here with Niall and Louis and he wants to snarl at everyone, grab Liam and go all caveman, building a shelter and keeping away from anyone who dares to separate them.

Liam watches this interaction tearfully, because the idea of two of his dominants leaving him makes him want to curl up in a ball forever. He feels so sorry for Zayn as well, with his poorly mother, and at one point even begs Zayn to take him because surely his father wouldn’t get defensive if Zayn had his own submissive there to prove that he wouldn’t be sniffing at anyone else’s.

Of course Zayn sighs and kisses him softly. “Dad won’t think I want mum,” he murmurs, holding Liam in his arms (Liam’s face is stained with his tears). Liam is so tiny in Zayn’s arms, like a child, and the way he’s staring into Zayn’s eyes like Zayn’s going to fix this, going to make it all better, breaks Zayn into pieces. “He’ll just be upset that he can’t help like I can.”

Louis doesn’t want to leave Liam either, but in all honesty he and Zayn have always done things like this together; they’re the best for it. They’re each other’s emotional rocks, and Zayn wouldn’t want anyone but Louis there and Louis wouldn’t want anyone else to take his place but him.

So Louis and Zayn leave, and Liam tries to relax because he’s got Harry and Niall, and it won’t be for long. He loves Niall and Harry to pieces and they’re going to look after him and everything will be okay.

-

It doesn’t work like that. Almost the second Louis and Zayn have left, showering Liam with kisses and promises of coming back and soon as they can, Harry and Niall start arguing.

The first argument is over who sleeps with Liam that night. Liam doesn’t understand why this is a problem: quite often the five of them will all sleep together, or Harry rooms with Zayn and Liam, or Liam rooms with Louis and Niall. Liam doesn’t understand why they can’t just stay together.

“We can stay in my room maybe?” Liam asks, and flinches when Harry shoots him a dirty look and Niall looks at him like he’s an idiot.

“That’s your space,” Niall tells him slowly. “We don’t go in there unless we’re all together; it’s part of what we agreed.”

Liam keeps quiet whilst Harry and Niall fight it out.

It turns out that Harry’s possessive streak hasn’t faded one little bit, he’s just better at controlling it when he has Zayn’s arm on his shoulder, or Louis raises his eyebrows at him. Niall is no match when Harry’s without the two of them.

“You’re not fucking coming into our room,” Harry snarls when Niall finally suggests that maybe they could room together, in Harry and Zayn’s room. “Fucking hell. Liam’s staying with me in Zayn’s and my room, and he can stay with you tomorrow okay?”

Liam sits on the sofa whilst Harry and Niall stand in front of him, and wants to say that he wants to be with the both of them, but the last time he’d tried to say anything he’d been shot down and he really didn’t want to have to deal with that again.

In the end, Liam stays with Harry in his room, and he’s told they’re taking it in turns. Harry’s one night, Niall’s the second.

Problem is, they spent so much time battling it out with each other that they didn’t even ask Liam what he wanted.

-

The second fight, naturally, is over sex. Liam wakes up in the middle of the night and he holds his arms out for Harry, who gets at Liam’s mouth hungrily until Liam’s whimpering into Harry’s mouth.

Liam is desperate to have some assurance from one of his dominants, considering two of them are MIA and he doesn’t feel whole, finished. He thinks if he’s filled up with one of his dominants, he’ll be whole again and loved, too.

And well, Harry’s not exactly going to say no, is he? He loves the rare moments in which he gets Liam to himself, even if it’s just lounging around on the sofa watching TV, with Liam all wrapped up in Harry’s clothes, with a shy little smile on his face when Harry reaches into his jumper and starts rubbing circles into Liam’s belly.

He’s got Liam underneath him, his little legs hooked around Harry’s waist, hands on Harry’s hips, keening and thrusting his hips: aka perfection. Harry knows it’s awful, but he pretends that Liam’s his and only his, like he’s Liam’s only dominant and they live alone in their own little bubble.

He adores Liam’s mouth, how soft and welcoming it is, pink and plump lips just inviting Harry in. But what Harry loves the most is the way Liam’s eyes roll back into his head when Harry has his fingers inside of him, crooking them to an angle that reaches the bundle of nerves deep inside of Liam, the way he pants watching Harry angle himself so he can push himself inside of Liam of Liam.

Harry lets his hips swing freely, pushing him deeper and deeper inside of Liam as he strokes the sweat off of the smaller boy’s forehead and kisses him roughly, forcing his mouth open so he can penetrate him in all ways.

He’s so close, losing his rhythm, and Liam’s writhing underneath him, shouting his name, when the door slams open and Niall’s angry voice feels the sex scented room.

Okay. So maybe it had been agreed that they wouldn’t have sex with Liam on their own especially when Zayn and Louis were away. But in Harry’s defence, had Liam been in Niall’s room the exact same situation would have taken place and both boys knew it.

So what if he ignores Niall, thrusting even faster into Liam, dropping his head onto Liam’s shoulders as he loses control. So what if Liam’s trying to push him away, sensing Niall’s anger, and he’s gone soft on Harry, no longer as into this as he was before.

Harry finishes inside of Liam and takes him into his arms, turning him over, and without a second’s warning Niall’s on him, shoving him off of Liam and shouting a mix of curse words so quickly that Harry doesn’t even know what he’s saying.

Liam lies in between of them, face pale with fear as Niall and Harry fight over him _yet again._ He doesn’t know if this is actually about Liam, or just them trying to mark their territory. Liam’s confused, because these boys have spent months trying to teach him that he’s worth something and that he’s not just a toy, but that’s exactly how these two boys are acting, like Liam’s some item that they both want to own. Liam doesn’t want to be owned by them if they’re being like this.

He’s scared and he doesn’t feel safe at all.

“Please, stop fighting,” he shouts tearfully. “Please, you’re scaring me.”

Harry and Niall turn towards him at his words, and he thinks maybe they’re listening to him, maybe they’re going to stop shouting and be angry for him, but then Harry’s face goes harsh and Niall looks away dismissively.

“Stay the fuck out of this, Liam,” Harry growls.

-

At first, Liam thinks he’s imagining it. He thinks maybe he’s imagining that Harry just said that to him, with his face so dark angry. But then Harry sighs and looks away from him and he realises that was an order, Harry was being serious.

Liam drops his head and shuffles out of the bed, kneeling on the floor (technically by Harry and Niall’s feet but far away enough that he can run from them if he needs to) and tries to ignore the tears rolling down his cheeks.

That’s all he ever heard back at the store. He hadn’t been liked by anyone, and no one had wanted to speak to him or hear his opinion on things. If he ever tried to say something, make a point (rare, but it did happen) then one of the other pets would turn to him angrily and tell him to shut up, stay out of their conversations.

Zayn had promised him that these boys had made a pact to never treat Liam the way he had been treated at the shop, that they were going to l _ove_ him, always make him feel wanted and loved.

The second Louis and Zayn leave, it all falls to pieces. And it’s worse that it’s these two, because Liam has always been apprehensive about loving Harry and Niall, always fearful it’d be these two who would break his heart and not want him anymore. It’s like every fear he’s ever had has been confirmed, that Niall doesn’t give two shits about him, that Harry thinks he’s some filthy pet that’s only decent for one thing and nothing else, doesn’t have a right to speak or be his own person.

That’s why he wouldn’t let him get a proper job, Liam thinks. Harry doesn’t think I’m worth it. And it explains why Niall just treats him like any person half the time, not like he’s a submissive who actually n _eeds_ to be treated like he’s weaker, because he IS and he craves it. Niall doesn’t even see Liam in that way does he?

Harry and Niall turn in shock to see Liam at their feet, head bowed, shaking like he thinks they’re going to hit him.

Liam’s decided that he wants Zayn and Louis back. He needs them back because they’re the ones who love him, the only two who really want him here, and he needs them here right now or he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

“Liam-”

Liam doesn’t let Niall finish, he talks over him for the first time ever. “I know,” he says hurriedly, because he doesn’t want them to feel guilty. It’s fine, he understands. He never expected anyone to love him or want him around, he’s worth nothing, so he understands why these two boys want him to shut up and not exist. “It’s okay,” he adds when Niall and Harry look at him confusedly.

Harry’s first thought is that Liam looks afraid, broken, but he’s smiling through his tears. “It’s okay,” Liam repeats softly. “Can Lou and Z come back now please?”

Niall wants to cry because even though they’ve just treated him like shit, Liam’s still trying to appease them and be polite even though he must be terrified right now.

He makes a move to go pick Liam up and try to apologise, get Liam to forgive him (although he really doesn’t think either of them deserve Liam’s forgiveness right now because they’ve been awful to him since Louis and Zayn left) but Liam actually screams and crawls away from him, into the corner of the room.

“I know you don’t want me here,” Liam gabbles almost incoherently. “I know you hate me but I just need my Zaynie here, can you get my Zaynie?”

Liam has never called Zayn Zaynie before.

“Liam, come here, please- we’re sorry-“

“Is Lou coming back?” Liam starts curling himself up, not even attempting to hide the tears rolling down his cheeks. “I just need Zaynie and Lou, I’ll be fine, and can you bring them back? I won’t be any bother to you anymore, I promise. I just need them.”

Harry picks Liam up and ignores how the smaller boy wails and tries to fight free, nearly kicking Harry in the face. “Liam please,” Harry begs him, because he’s so, so sorry. He can’t even believe he said that to Liam and if he could he would take it all back, never say it to him again. But he’d been so angry and so close to ripping Niall’s head off, and he’d just snapped. He didn’t mean it; he didn’t mean any of this.

But Liam won’t calm down, he won’t stay still. He’s begging Niall to phone Lou-lou (with each passing second Liam’s speech gets down-graded to the point where he’s not calling the boys by their full names, he’s giving them nicknames like a baby would).

“Oh, fuck,” Harry swears. “Niall, phone Zayn.”

Niall looks up at Harry with a glare, like he’s going to tell Harry to stop ordering him around, but takes one look at Liam and digs into his pocket for his mobile immediately.

“Zayn and Louis are going to kill us, you do realise,” Niall says dryly. “We’ve had him for two days and we’ve already got him like this.”

“If you had just-” Harry starts raising his voice again, but Liam goes rigid in his arms when he does and starts begging even louder, so Harry cuts off. “Look, fighting got us into the position in the first place. Can we like- just call it a truce or something, for Liam?”

Niall bits his lip, but he’s over to Harry and Liam within moments and he’s got his arms wrapped around them both. “I’m sorry, man,” he says quietly, and Harry gets his arms around Niall and Liam too.

“I’m sorry as well,” Harry admits. “It was a shitty thing for me to do.” He turns his face to Liam. “Liam, baby?”

Liam’s cried himself out. His eyelashes are soaked with tears and he’s got his thumb in his mouth, and Harry’s petrified now because Liam’s eyes are far away, like he’s not even in this scene anymore. Harry knows it’s because Liam’s having flashbacks to that horrible place, and it’s their entire fault.

“I love you,” Harry says, kissing Liam on the cheek, but Liam doesn’t respond. “Liam, we love you to pieces.”

Nothing.

“I’m so sorry for the way I spoke to you,” Harry tries again. “I let my jealousy get to me, but that’s no real excuse. I fucking adore you, alright? I adore you so much that the idea of someone else having you makes me see red. I’m trying, Liam. I’m trying to learn how to share but I’m not perfect- I make mistakes.”

Niall wipes the tears from Liam’s face, who’s breathing in the shallow harsh breaths of someone who has just stopped crying. “Liam, baby,” he whispers. “Come on, now. You know we love you to hell and back.”

Liam nods a tiny bit and Harry and Niall breathe sighs of relief.

-

When Zayn and Louis come home, it’s to find Liam on the sofa squashed between Niall and Harry. They’ve apparently found a compromise, because Harry’s got Liam underneath him, whilst Liam lies on top of Niall.

Zayn and Louis breathe a sigh of relief.

“They actually survived,” Louis says in shock.

If only they knew.


	6. part six

—

When Louis and Zayn had found out about how Harry and Niall had acted whilst they were away, they had been extremely annoyed and would have shouted had Liam begged them not to. He honestly didn’t think he could handle his dominants getting mad at each other again.

The problem was here that sex pets were not supposed to be shared, and so this arrangement was completely unheard of and that meant there were a lot of problems sometimes, but as long as they tried to figure out what the hell was going on and tried to fix it, and just worked together, it would all be alright. It really wasn’t Harry and Niall’s fault that things had turned out the way they had, and they’d come together and sorted it out when it really mattered.

“To be fair,” Zayn had said after a while, “If this had been Louis then the house would have been burned down or something.”

Louis was on the sofa opposite Zayn, and he looked up from where he was stroking Liam’s hair softly, like he was going to protest, but then he thought about it and shrugged. It was probably true.

Liam giggled and stroked Louis’ arm comfortingly. Usually none of the boys would accept comfort because of their pride but when it came to Liam…

Well, Liam could definitely get away with burning the house down; the boys were so whipped on him they’d probably praise him for it.

-

Now that the boys were comfortable (or at least in Harry’s case, tolerable) of sharing Liam equally amongst them, it was acceptable for the boys to come into his room on his own. Liam hadn’t realised until Harry and Niall had pointed out: before, everyone stayed clear of his room unless they were all together. It felt too private, too sneaky, to be on there with him on his own whilst they were still trying to figure out the whole sharing thing.

Louis’ working tonight, so he’s out late, and Niall and Harry have late night lectures. Liam hates to be alone, so Zayn’s joined him in ‘his’ room tonight and the pair are snuggled up, Zayn spooning his favourite boy.

“How’s your mum, Zaynie?” Liam asks, because it’s the first quiet moment he’s been able to have with Zayn since Zayn and Louis came back from looking after Zayn’s mum.

Zayn looks at Liam with a frown for a moment, wondering why Liam’s started to call him ‘Zaynie’ and then he remembers Harry’s hysterical phone call saying that Liam had lost the plot and he was calling Zayn and Lou baby like nicknames. It’s quite endearing and cute coming out of Liam’s mouth, so Zayn doesn’t complain.

“Yeah, she’s good,” he says after a moment, and rubs Liam’s chin with his hand, unable to hold back from giving him a small kiss. Liam is irresistible. “Should have seen dad with Lou, though. Almost had him for a moment.”

Liam looked alarmed but Zayn kissed him into relaxing again. “S’okay, dad’s a bit old now,” Zayn said honestly. “Louis handled him with no problems.”

Liam nodded and turned in so that he was using Zayn’s chest like a pillow, hearing Zayn’s heartbeat.

“It’s three months tomorrow,” Zayn said softly, and Liam looked up in surprise because he hadn’t thought that the boys would really pay attention to it. Liam’s been counting the weeks though, counting the weeks since he moved in with his dominants, the days that they still wanted him here and loved him. Three months marks the time where you keep your pet for good, you can’t return them after three months. It’s quite a big deal for Liam, but he didn’t know if it would be a big deal for them.

“I didn’t know if you would remember or not,” Liam said honestly, because Niall has sat him down many times and lectured him on talking about his feelings and making sure that he doesn’t keep things all bottled up inside of him because that only caused situations like the one that had occurred when Zayn and Louis and gone away for a couple of days.

“We did,” Zayn said firmly. “Of course we did.”

—

Liam wakes up to four boys on top of him, and it’s really not something that surprises him anymore because it happens so often. It’s common for him to go to sleep with just Harry and Zayn and wake up with Louis’ erection pressing into his hip and Niall’s body entwined into his own. What’s still quite strange is that Liam sometimes falls asleep in Louis arms in Niall and Louis’ room, but he’ll wake up curled with just Zayn and Harry in a completely different room.

It’s something he thinks he’s going to have to get used to, and it’s not like he minds because he loves waking up in any of his Dominants’ arms. Liam’s favourite mornings are the rare ones in which all of the boys stack in Liam’s room, apparently like last night must have ended up being like, and he wakes up with his head on Harry’s chest, arms twisted with Louis’, being kissed awake by Niall, and squashed by Zayn.

“Three months!” Louis whoops into Liam’s ear, and then bounces on the bed, waking up all of the boys and ignoring Harry’s grumble and his shoves. “Guys. This is a big moment. This is my longest relationship ever.”

“It’ll end soon if you don’t get off me, mate,” Niall growled up at Louis, but he was smiling so they all knew he was joking. None of them could be upset when it’s their anniversary, it’s a special day and they all want it to be perfect.

“That’s really the way to speak to your boyfriend on your anniversary, Niall,” Louis mock pouted and licked Niall’s face, causing the smaller boy to hiss and back away from him on the bed.

“How are you feeling, Liam?” Zayn asked, rubbing the boys arm comfortingly. Louis was trying to make this less weird, less heavy, because this is obviously a massive deal to Liam and he’s definitely having a mini freak out, the way he’s silent, eyes wide as he looks up at his dominants.

“Um,” Liam says, looking at how Louis’ flicking at Harry who’s insisting on not waking up, Niall who’s grumbling about early mornings and absently rubbing Liam’s leg, and Zayn, who’s now got his arms around Liam and is cuddling him against the headboard. It feels like a family.

It feels like home.

“I’m happy,” Liam looks up at Zayn honestly, eyes crinkling at the sides as he smiled Zayn’s favourite smile of his.

-

It’s Louis who comes up with the idea of the game, because as he says “You’re all being so boring, come on, it’s our anniversary. Why can’t we do something cool?”

To be fair, all of the boys are thinking that maybe they should be making a bigger deal out of this. They would have gone out but Liam prefers to stay in, so they stayed in the flat but there’s an obvious lack of things to do when you stay indoors all day.

“What are you suggesting, Lou?” Niall said suspiciously, because last time Louis had a good idea during truth or die he’d dared Zayn to walk around the block naked and he’d nearly gotten arrested- luckily they’d moved flat since then, but Zayn’s still trying to get over the tragic experience.

“Hey Liam,” Louis spoke directly to Liam because Liam would do anything to make the boys happy, and if Liam says he wants to do something then all of the boys will instantly agree. It’s Liam that Louis knows he has to convince here. “Wanna play a game?”

“What game?” Liam looks just as suspicious as Niall (something Harry has taught him) but also quite curious. He hasn’t been around long enough to realise how awful Louis’ ideas are sometimes, and it’s good that he hasn’t because if he had he might have said no and then the boys would have missed out on the adorable experience later on.

“It’s like a kissing game,” Louis tried to explain. “We can like, blindfold you, and spin you around and we stand outside, yeah? Then one of us comes in at a time and kisses you and you have to be able to guess who it is, and none of us can speak.”

“He’ll be able to tell from our scents though, Louis?” Harry pointed out, and Louis looked stumped and a bit put out for a couple of moments, before he brightened.

“Swap clothes,” he shouted. “We can swap clothes lots of times and then he’ll have to tell some other way.”

Liam says yes, because he likes the idea and it’s clearly something that Louis wants to do. It doesn’t sound like a horrible idea and Liam definitely enjoys kissing.

-

At first, it’s confusing and Liam doesn’t like it when they put the blindfold on him because he can’t see anything. And he really hates it when they all leave him in the room alone, because he’s almost convinced that they’ve just had second thoughts and they’re leaving him. It’s not that Liam honestly thinks that, because he doesn’t, but he’s never had his senses cut off before and it makes him irrational and panicky. He almost says that he doesn’t want to play the game anymore but he knows he can’t back out before they’ve even started.

Then it gets a bit funny and even more confusing because after five whole minutes of sitting there in a panic, the door opens and a boy comes in the door, but Liam can’t tell who it is. At first he thinks he catches Niall’s scent, but then he smells Zayn’s wood smoke cologne and realises that they’ve not only swapped clothes, but they’ve sprayed themselves with each other’s scents.

Liam knows he’s not allowed to speak, so he stays silent with his head faced down as the boy, whoever it is, comes closer to him. And then he feels a soft mouth on his neck, making him shiver, and then he lifts his head up at the same time as the boy bends down and their lips meet in an electrical kiss, made more so because of the fact that Liam can’t see them.

It’s easy to know who it is when there’s one of them. It’s Harry, because no one kisses as gently as he does, and he’s so much larger than Liam- he can tell that just from the way his hands can only comfortably reach his shoulders. It probably makes sense that it’s Harry first because he is pretty pushy and he likely insisted.

Liam’s just about to laugh, call out that he knows it’s Harry, when a pair of hands clutch around the waist, massive hands- the same size as Harry’s. But that doesn’t make any sense, considering Harry’s arms are on either side of Liam’s butt, holding him close to him.

Now Liam’s confused because he can only smell one scent now, and that’s Harry’s. But there are definitely two pairs of hands on him, two people thrusting against him, from the behind and the front. The hands on his waist dig in, so that he yelps, and Harry or whoever it is takes his mouth again, biting at his lip.

Liam’s gone. He’s trying to think of whose kissing technique this person is using, how tall they are, their scent, but everything’s muddled. This person is kissing like Harry but seems awkward in doing it, like they’re not used to kissing this way. They’re just as tall as Harry, but now they don’t smile like him- they smell like Niall…. But that’s because there are a third pair of hands in his hair, ruffling it in the way that Louis so loves to do but the hands are too small to be Louis’.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Liam whimpered, and then a different pair of hands covers his mouth gently, and now he knows all four of them are in there because he has hands on his waist, butt, his hair and now his mouth.

“No talking,” that’s Zayn’s voice, but it comes from his left, not above him. But he’s not so sure about that, because he’s dizzy due to the boys spinning him around before they had left the first time.

Liam pouts in the direction he thinks Zayn might be in, and he hears a chuckle from his right that sounds like Niall’s raspy laugh. “Niall’s holding my waist,” he says firmly, but Niall only laughs.

“No,” is the reply, and Liam almost stomps his foot, because he was so convinced it was Niall’s hands on his waist. He feels movement around him and now he’s leaning on someone else’s chest, and another boy is licking into his mouth (something only Louis does).

Liam kisses back for a moment and then pulls away, panting, “Louis’ kissing me,” and finally he’s got something right because Louis kisses him again and then whispers into his air:

“You know me so well.”

“But who’s this on your waist?” That’s Zayn’s voice, light and teasing, but he’s not the boy holding Liam around the waist because his voice comes from above him.

“Zayn’s ruffling my hair,” Liam says with surprise, because normally Zayn doesn’t mess with his hair. ‘Treat others how you want to be treated’ is Zayn’s motto and he hates it when Louis tries to play with his hair whilst they’re watching television.

Zayn grumbles but relents, taking Louis’ place and kissing Liam a long kiss, sucking on his tongue, which is definitely a Zayn thing. “Yeah, that was me.”

“So… Harry’s on my waist?” Liam asks, confused because all he can smell is Zayn in front of him, Louis to the side, and Niall’s scent. Harry’s usually so overwhelming that all Liam can sense when he’s in the room is him.

“No,” Louis bites at Liam’s neck, bringing out a red mark that’s going to be so bruised tomorrow. “That’s not him.”

Liam turned around (he didn’t know, but he was looking in the opposite direction) and whined, “You lied, Niall! You said it wasn’t you!”

“Over here,” Niall smirked and Liam whirled around, not knowing where the hell any of the boys were now seeing as they’ve all wandered away from him.

“I don’t like this game,” Liam sulked, and immediately four boys are all on him, kissing any place of him they can find.

“You know you love me,” Niall shrugged. “It actually was Harry on your waist. Louis lied, not me.”

“I resent that accusation Horan!”

Zayn and Harry just look at each other and laugh. Only Niall and Louis could start an argument over a game.


	7. part seven

 

Liam spends individual times with his dominants 

Liam and Louis-  


“Liam babe,” Louis whispered into Liam’s ear, pulling him into his arms. Liam immediately wrapped his arms around Louis’ neck and breathed in his wood smoke scent. He’s been using Zayn’s cologne again, Liam can tell.

Liam makes a sound against Louis’ shoulders in response.

“We were thinking,” and when Louis says this Liam knows he means that the other boys have all sat down and had a massive discussion on this (and knowing Harry, probably a vote), “Maybe you’re a bit dependent on all of us being here.”

Liam’s heart lurches, because he thinks maybe Louis’ going to tell him they’re all going away without him.

“So we thought maybe if you spent more time with us individually, you’d get used to it,” Louis continues, looking Liam in the eyes. “That sound alright?”

Liam nods, because that does actually sound alright. “Okay.”

Louis starts tracing circles in Liam’s collarbone and then he presses a small kiss in the same place. Liam wraps his legs around Louis’ waist and Louis carries Liam into his room, loving how Liam clings to him like a little monkey.

It’s probably the sweetest time they’ve had together, because usually there are at least two dominants present in the room when the boys are intimate with each other, and there’s more of an urge to fuck than to make love. Louis finally gets to feel every inch of Liam’s body all to himself, spend time getting Liam so worked up he howls, and actually slants his hips to create the perfection in Louis’ eyes.

Louis loves it when Liam gets so worked up he begs, making high, keening sounds, raising his hips into the air practically begging to be fucked.

“You like it, Li?” Louis murmurs when he’s got his mouth around Liam. Liam’s eyes are so wide it looks like he’ll never be able to close them, and he tosses his head from side to side, trying to stop himself from thrusting up into Louis’ mouth.

Louis pulls off, grinning down at him, kissing him on the nose softly. “Love you,” he says suddenly, and Liam howls it back, and Louis takes pity on him and starts stretching Liam so that he can finally be inside of him.

With the first push, Louis is reminded just how tight Liam is, how tight he always is, the way he clenches himself around Louis’ member so deliciously. Each thrust opens him up further, until Louis bottoms out, balls deep.

Louis would ask if Liam’s okay but they have both lost the power of speech.

He circles his hips, loving the sounds it generates from Liam, the way Liam’s clutching onto him with his tiny little hands, begging Louis to never stop.

It’s beautiful, being with Liam on his own, and Louis hopes that Liam enjoys it just as much as he is because he needs to do this again, if only once, to be with Liam again in this perfect way.

When they release, it’s at the same time.

Liam and Zayn

“Liam?” Liam had been sleeping in his own bed on his own last night. He’d been so exhausted last night that he’d fallen asleep in Harry’s arms whilst the boys had just been relaxing, and Louis deemed that Liam needed to be on his own for the night and just rest without the boys constantly demanding his affection. None of them had really liked the idea, but looking at Liam with the bags under his eyes and how peaceful he looked asleep in Harry’s arms, they had known he was right.

Zayn had slipped into Liam’s bedroom at ten in the morning because he’d gotten the urge to draw and he wanted to do a portrait of Liam. When Liam had just woken up and his hair was ruffled, wearing an oversized nightshirt of Niall’s, he looked absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful and Zayn wanted to draw him just like that.

“Morning, Zaynie,” Liam smiled up shyly at him. Ever since Zayn and Louis had gone away to Zayn’s family home, Liam had picked up the habit of referring to them as ‘Zaynie and Lou’. It had been confusing and worrying at first but now all of the boys just found it endearing, like they found everything about Liam endearing.

As per usual, Liam held out his arms and Zayn picked him easily and swooped him in for a good morning kiss. “Can I draw you?” Zayn murmured, pressing little kisses on Liam’s neck. Liam loved it when Zayn drew him, it made him feel loved. He wasn’t as scared and unsure of what he knew was about to happen, because he’d ‘spent time’ with Louis on his own a couple of times now and he was starting to really enjoy one on one time with his dominants.

*

Zayn never did get to draw Liam because he got completely distracted with how Liam looked, shyly looking up at Zayn through his fringe, biting at his lip in the adorable way that made Zayn want to pounce.

And so he did, hearing Liam’s moan of delight, which spurned him on, pulling Liam into a gentle kiss which soon deepened, Zayn slipping in his tongue and sucking on Liam’s slowly, until Liam was whining and pushing at Zayn’s crotch.

Zayn winked, because he loves it when Liam gets like this, not afraid to ask for what he wanted, completely ready to pull Zayn’s trousers down and get the job done himself. Sometimes Liam’s so submissive in the bedroom he’ll do anything you ask him to, other times he’s pushy (Zayn’s favourite) and loud and _perfect._

Liam’s so desperate at this point that Zayn only needs to get two fingers inside of him before Liam’s rolling over, getting on all fours and thrusting his hips upwards, clearly telling Zayn to hurry the hell up and just get inside of him.

So Zayn obliges, gliding into his favourite boy, and Liam makes a high keening sound and would have fell on his face on the bed had Zayn not wrapped his arm around Liam’s waist, keeping him secure as Zayn fucks into him, opening Liam up with every thrust of his hip. It’s so strange, being able to generate these sounds out of Liam and be able to lean down and swallow the groans straight from his mouth, because the urge to make everyone in the room aware that he’s the one making Liam feel this way has been diminished because there’s no one to prove anything to, just him and Liam.

Liam and Niall

Liam’s in his favourite place when it happens: Niall’s arms, fast asleep, in Louis and Niall’s shared room. Louis’ had to leave early to go to university: he’d left early in the morning with Zayn and Harry. Niall’s the only one who’s doing a music based course, so his hours are different. Zayn’s doing an art/English degree, Louis’ doing drama and English Literature, and Harry’s doing a law degree.

Niall loves his mornings with Liam, which only ever occur on Wednesdays, because there’s nothing better than waking up to his submissive cradled in his arms. Liam looks so peaceful when he sleeps, and he has a tiny little smile on his face- Niall wants to kiss him awake, kiss him so that that subconscious kiss turns into a real one, so he can see the look of love in his eyes when Liam looks up at him.

It doesn’t actually make sense but this is the way it is: Niall might be the smallest dominant, but he’s not the sweet love maker that Zayn is. He’s more outrageous, like Louis, willing to do anything he please Liam, fucking into him quickly as he can, working up the best friction that drives Liam mad. Maybe it’s because Niall’s always been the one to treat Liam the most like he’s just one of them, like an equal. Niall is very equal in his love making.

Liam wakes up to Niall holding him firmly around the waist, hungrily kissing into his neck: he’s going to have a shocking bruise there in a few hours; it feels like Niall’s _eating his neck._ Liam loves it though; he loves it when his boys mark him, so that anyone who sees Liam knows he belongs to someone, he’s been taken.

“Good morning,” Niall grinned into Liam’s neck, and Liam shivered. He knows what’s about to happen and it’s one of his favourite things. It’s a position that doesn’t often happen, because it’ so intimate and hard to do with other people around.

It goes like this: Liam’s on his side, with Niall wrapped around him, their legs entwined, Niall’s breath hot against Liam’s neck. It’s impossible not to feel everything in this position, not feel every roll of Niall’s lips. It’s the most equal sexual position there is, and it gives Liam a lot more power. Pretty soon he’s drenched in sweat for their love making, panting from the feel of Niall inside of him, deep enough to get Liam going but not deep enough to touch that perfect spot inside of him that made him wild.

Niall’s still kissing him softly, making Liam whimper and moan Niall’s name on each heavy swing of his hips.

“Niall?” Liam says, and he doesn’t need to finish his question properly for Niall to know exactly what he wants, what he needs. He reaches over Liam to take his swollen member in his hands, compact like the whole of Liam is, delicate and blushed pink, the vein on the side throbbing. Niall strokes him tightly in rhythm with Niall’s cock gliding in and out of him.

Liam howls his release and turns into Niall so he’s cradled against his chest. Liam loves Wednesday mornings more than any other morning in the week.

Liam and Harry

Harry didn’t mean to do it. It’s just that he’s sitting there at dinner and Liam’s got this massive love bite on his neck and he’s been sharing shy looks with Niall all through the first two courses of the meal. He’s also pretty sure they’ve been playing footsy underneath the table too, considering Niall just kicked his leg and didn’t even seem to notice when Harry shot him a dirty look.

Harry hates this whole new individual thing they’ve got going on with Liam. He really hates it. It’s like, at least before he got to watch the others with Liam and kind of have some say in what’s going on. He always gets to be last (you’d think he prefer to be first, but it usually goes Louis, Niall, Zayn and then Harry and he’s fine with that) so he’s the last one to remind Liam of what they have, biting over the marks that Zayn loves to leave so much. He gets to mark Liam on his own.

But this is the third time that Harry has had to sit across from Liam and see him either with bruises that Harry didn’t put there, wearing someone else’s jumper and not his, smiling and awkwardly having to find a comfortable position to sit in because of somebody else, not Harry.

So he sits there and he doesn’t plan it and he wouldn’t have done it had he been in the right frame of mind, but he starts growling and before he knows it he’s got Liam in his arms and he’s dragging him off into Liam’s room like the caveman he’s always threatened to become. Louis is shouting at him to stop being a twat, Zayn has sighed like he’s resigned himself to Harry’s behaviour and Niall just looks output.

-

“Harry, put me down!” Liam pushes his fists against Harry’s chest and bangs until Harry throws him on the bed and starts tearing off his shirt. “Harry, please.”

Harry’s eyes are wild and he looks like he’s going to start throwing things (Liam knows that Harry would never even think of hurting him, though).

“Harry?”

He closes his eyes and watches Liam on the bed, swamped in the sheets, wearing Zayn’s cardigan and looking a bit wary.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Harry bites his lip. “I couldn’t control myself- sometimes I just can’t look at you and _see_ someone else on you.”

Liam knows that really, Harry needs it to be explained to him that he needs to learn to share Liam with the others, that he can’t keep on acting this way. But Liam likes it, he sort of likes the way Harry wants him so much that he’s blinded by it.

“Come here.” Harry’s surprised that Liam hasn’t told him no, that he’s actually sitting with his arms wide open for Harry to come into them, to drop his head into Liam’s lap.

“I like it when you’re like this,” Liam says eventually. “I love it. But you can’t take me away from the others; I need them too.”

And then Liam does the single hottest thing he has ever done and Harry loves him to hell and back for it.

He takes off all of his clothes, and tugs at Harry’s shirt.

He puts on Harry’s shirt.

And well, if Harry ends of fucking him into the mattress, getting off on the fact that Liam’s wearing an item of his clothing, then that’s okay, because Liam’s 100% fine with it.

 

 

Liam goes into heat- the other boys aren’t there

It’s a bit better when the boys leave Liam on his own now. He stills feels pangs when they’re not with him, but he trusts that they will never leave him and after the last time, Zayn and Louis make sure to never do anything other than what the plan lays out: when they’ve finished what they go out for, they come back. No extra errands.

Liam wishes that they didn’t have to go out today or this week. He’s so close to his heat, he can feel it: feel it in the way he’s more demanding in the bedroom, and the boys have all been sharing Liam’s room for three days now because he can’t bear to apart from two of them.

“I won’t be back until six,” Louis said, biting his lip. “I’ve got the full shift tonight. But Harry’s back by three, and Niall and Zayn will be back just after.”

Liam didn’t want to be a burden, so he kept quiet; even though he has the churning feeling he gets in his stomach right before he goes into heat. He knows it’s important that they go out today, and it doesn’t happen often. Maybe he can hold it off: maybe this is just the early signs, he’s got a bit longer.

He knows he hasn’t though. He’s been eating so much more than usual recently, and Harry’s taken to joking that he gives Niall a run for his money, whilst Zayn rolls his eyes and Louis kisses Liam’s little belly (understandably, Liam’s put on a bit of weight since staying with the boys). He feels hot, hot to the touch, and even Niall pulls back and looks at him a bit funny when he kisses him goodbye.

“You got a fever, Liam?” Niall said quietly, knowing that if Harry overheard Liam would be packed in bed with twenty four hour supervision. Harry takes it very seriously when Liam’s feeling a bit poorly. Niall knows that Liam hates it when the boys get like that, it makes him worry, so he keeps his voice low. Maybe if he’d been overhead, one of the other boys would have picked up on the fact that Liam was definitely in heat right now. But they didn’t.

“M’fine,” Liam smiled. “Love you. Have a nice day at work, Louis.”

*

It starts almost the second that Zayn’s out of the door. He’s forgotten his coat and comes back almost half a second later, and Liam’s curled up on the sofa. His eyes are squeezed shut and Zayn smiles, thinking that Liam’s fallen asleep. He leaves quietly so as to not wake him up.

Liam’s not asleep. He’s burning up, and he’s trying to hold himself tightly almost as if by doing this he’s going to hold his heat in or something, stop the heat from happening. Naturally it doesn’t work like that.

The pangs are gentle at first, he just gets a slight erection and a panging feeling in his stomach but Liam can deal with that. He tries to wonder around, keeping busy, making himself some toast with jam- he knows things aren’t getting better from the way that he stuffs three slices into his mouth and he’s still hungry, he still wants more.

It’s not just food he’s hungry for. He needs his boys right now, because he’s getting worse and when the feelings crash through him, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore them. He tries to get comfortable by lying on his front on the floor, but within minutes he’s panting and he needs to move.

He doesn’t know what to do. It’s only been an hour; he’s got ages until the boys come home and if he doesn’t get help right now he’s absolutely going to explode. He can’t stop crying, massive big tears falling down his face, and he tries to find friction to get himself off (he’s never done this before, why would he need to with four boys to do it for him?) but it’s to no avail, even after he orgasms for the second time. It’s his boys’ orgasms that he needs for relief, not his own.

Liam resigns himself to the fact that he’s going to die. (Perhaps Louis’ dramatic streak is rubbing off on him).

*

Two hours later and Liam’s still screaming, voice gone hoarse, eyes blacked out. He can’t breathe at this point and he’s so desperate he thinks his going to scratch the skin off of his entire body. He’s never been in so much pain in his life.

He can’t hold on, it’s too much for him to deal with and when his heat rolls through him yet again, he sobs again and that’s it. He passes out.

*

Harry’s back first; seven hours after Liam went into heat. The second he walks in, he knows. “Fuck, fuck, oh fuck.”

The last time Liam had been in heat the entire flat had been infected with his scent, but now? Harry can barely breathe through it, Liam’s scent rolling through him so strongly it takes him aback. He has about three seconds warning before he’s so hard that his pants have tented and he’s actually a bit worried they might tear.

He doesn’t know how long Liam’s been in heat, but from the fact he can’t hear Liam (and last time he’d been begging and screaming) he thinks it’s way too long for any submissive to go without assistance. He doesn’t care if Louis gets fired at this point: it’s an emergency and Louis needs to be home with the other boys _right now._

*

“Oh my baby,” Zayn and Niall come home right after Harry, as planned, and Zayn knows in seconds that Liam’s up in heat. He doesn’t wait around for Louis and neither does Niall, and at this point Harry can’t either: they can’t leave Liam like this, it’s so cruel.

Liam’s in the middle of his bed and his eyes are rolling back into his head, in between consciousness. His eyes are red and puffy from his crying and he’s completely naked, his erection looking so painful Harry winces on his behalf.

Niall makes the mistake of scooping Liam into his arms: he’s too sensitive for that and he wakes, spluttering and trying to get out Niall’s arms: Niall’s shocked, looking at the other boys for help.

Liam’s mumbling something over and over, and no one can make it out until another wave rolls through him and he screams, “Help me!” and his entire body is shaking and it’s the scariest, most awful thing that all of the boys have witnessed.

*

Louis comes stumbling into the room just as Zayn’s flexing his hips into Liam, and Liam’s so far gone he’s not making a sound, he’s got his head in Niall’s lap and Harry’s stroking his hair and whispering comforting words to him.

“Took your time,” Harry scowls at him. “He got a bit better once I got inside of him, but he wasn’t even conscious when I got home.”

Louis doesn’t reply for a moment, watches as Zayn comes into Liam, his rhythm going awry, and then the way Liam’s limbs go limp and he falls into the sheets. “Lou?” he mutters, his mind far away, and Louis turns to Harry: “I got here as quick as I could,” and then kisses Liam’s forehead, saying sorry a million times.

“I’m honestly not joking when I say we need to start writing down when Liam’s going into heat,” Niall groans, “Two rounds and I’m dead.”

 

 

Liam’s first public appearance with all of the other boys

Within thirty seconds of being outside Zayn knows why they don’t take Liam out very often. Liam’s completely oblivious to it all, holding onto Louis’ and Niall’s hands and grinning as he looked around the shops. He loves going out, and it’s the only reason the boys all agreed to it. They would do anything to keep him happy.

It’s generally just Harry, who takes Liam out, and it’s only happened a couple of times, but this is the first time that all of the boys have taken him out and the difference is definitely noticeable.

The looks they get, for one. It’s obvious Liam’s the only submissive in their group, from the way he’s the smallest and he’s gathered in Louis and Niall’s arms, Zayn walking in front and Harry bringing up the rear, all in a deliberate formation.

When it’s just them in their flat, it’s easy to forget that it’s not actually normal for one submissive to have four dominants- it’s completely unheard of. It’s not frowned upon, but it intrigues other dominants and even makes other submissives quite jealous. It’s obvious Liam is adored fully by all four males, from the way they watch him with fond smiles and they all keep stopping every couple of steps to stroke and kiss him. It’s like they can’t resist him.

Liam doesn’t notice when a submissive walking with a much older dominant walks by and sneers at him. Zayn growls when the words “slut” and “who does he think he is” are spoken but he knows that doing anything about it would attract Liam’s attention to the situation and Zayn would rather that Liam didn’t hear stuff like that being thrown at him.

“Can we have pasta tonight Harry?” Liam has perfected Niall’s pout perfectly, and when they walk past the Italian shop and it reminds Liam of his favourite meal, Harry immediately kisses the top of Liam’s head and tells him that of course they can have pasta tonight.

There’s a man outside the door of the Italian and he’s clearly drunk. He overhears Harry and he sneers, “You shouldn’t spoil him like that. Pup needs to know his place.”

Louis has no problem with making a big scene unlike Zayn and he spirals around, a snarl already flying from his lips: “What did you just say?”

It’s the wrong thing to do. The best thing would have been to walk by, ignore it, but none of the boys are going to ignore a direct insult like that. They give Liam the love and the affection he deserves, and if that’s spoiling him then they don’t care because Liam has earned it all and more. They don’t need someone telling them what they should and shouldn’t do.

The man clearly doesn’t realise his mistake, because he walks towards them –Liam flinches and cowers into Niall- and smiles, baring his teeth in a wide grin which he probably thinks is attractive.

It’s not.

“He’s a pretty one,” he leers, looking Liam up and down in a way that makes him want to throw up. “Bit much for you b _oys_ to handle I should think?”

Harry gives a warning growl which the man ignores completely. “He seems more of the quiet type,” the man decides. “Bet he’s willing to do whatever you want, isn’t he?”

“Shut up, and walk away now,” Zayn says quietly.

“Maybe the boy should come with me,” the man raises his eyebrows. “Let me show him what a real man can do-”

It’s obvious in the way he looks at Liam what he means and Harry’s on him within seconds, and Zayn considers pulling him back but decides the man has earned it. Liam looks petrified; he’s never seen a horrible dominant before. The ones he’s met other than his boys were all older quiet men, respectable and sweet. This man is anything but sweet.

“Louis, can we go,” he says in a small voice. He doesn’t like the way the man’s looking at him like he’s a piece of meat. It works though, Zayn and Niall pull Harry off of the guy who looks furious, whilst Louis snarls at him that he better mind his tongue around Liam or else.

*

In all fairness, it’s not really Liam’s fault that he gets lost. He’s holding onto Zayn’s hand but Zayn’s been distracted by the art pencils, and he tells Liam he can go and look at some of the other arts and crafts stuff (it turns out Liam loves to finger paint, and there’s not much the boys find more adorable than Liam sitting on a mat wearing Zayn’s old massive art t-shirts and splashing paint everywhere).

There are way too many people and Liam’s way too naïve to think about keeping Zayn in eye contact. He’s so used to the boys looking after him and finding him that he doesn’t even consider the idea, and after ten minutes of being stuck between Bronze and Pink Grey, he looks around to ask Zayn’s opinion.

He’s gone.

Liam does something really stupid: he thinks maybe he can go into the sport shop and find Niall, because the boys had all separated: Liam with Zayn, Niall on his own, Harry and Louis together. He thinks maybe he can go into the shop and find Niall and Niall can find Zayn and everything will be okay again.

But Niall’s not in the shop and Liam can’t remember if it was this one or the other one Niall had gone into and he’s walked an awful long way from the arts and crafts shop and he can’t remember how to get back. He’s left his phone at home, because he never uses it and he hasn’t got into a routine yet.

Basically, he’s screwed and he starts to panic. “Harry!” he screams, ignoring the way people turn and gape at him in the streets. “Louis! Lou!”

“Niall? Have you seen my Niall?”

“Zayn, Zayn, please! Zayn?”

He can’t find them anywhere and now he’s crying, big tears falling down his cheeks and catching in his eyelashes. “Lou?”

There are arms around him and he relaxes, thinking maybe the boys have found him, but the scent is all wrong. This guy, whoever he is, smells of stale beer and BO and Liam doesn’t like it, he doesn’t smell like Zayn’s wood smoke scent, Harry’s Gucci, Niall’s cinnamon, Louis’ ginger. He screams.

“You’re not Harry!” he’s the same size, and for a second Liam had thought maybe Harry had found him.

“Hello again,” the guy sneers and Liam jumps out of his skin. It’s the guy from earlier, the rude one who had made sexual comments and had had a horrible view on submissives.

“Let me go!”

The man does no such thing, only tightening his arms around Liam’s tiny waist and picking him up, but Liam doesn’t feel safe like he does when Zayn picks him up, or Niall cradles him to his chest after sex, or he cuddles on the couch with Harry or Louis stands behind him with his arms wrapped around his stomach.

Liam’s crying again, because he just wanted to look at the paint and he hadn’t meant to lose Zayn and he just wants to be home and away from this guy who’s pawing at his skin, making him feel dirty and afraid.

“I just wanted to look at the paint,” he sniffs, trying to break free of the other man’s arms but he’s too weak. His own dominants have been holding back on him, Liam realises, because he can feel the strength purring through this guy’s body: he could snap Liam like a twig if he wanted to. His size is something to be feared, not valued like Harry’s.

“Those little boys, eh? Only gone and lost you! Don’t you worry, I’ll look after you.” Look after you sounds horrible coming out of his mouth and Liam knows he means in the bedroom and the idea of having sex with anyone other than his boys makes him feel sick to the skin.

*

Liam wakes up in bed at home with Zayn in the bed next to him and Harry stroking his hair. His face is still wet: he’s been crying in his sleep.

“You’re okay Liam,” Niall soothes. “He didn’t do anything, we found you before he could do anything. You’re safe, sleep.” Liam relaxes only when he hears that. He remembers the guy trying to kiss him and then it’s a blur. He remembers Harry hitting someone and Louis cursing but he doesn’t remember how he got home.

“I just wanted to look at the paint,” he repeats, sobbing this time. “I held your hand Zayn, I _promise.”_

“No one’s blaming you,” Louis kisses Liam’s cheek. “It’s fine, you’re home, no harm done. We’re just… let’s just stay in for a while alright? And please, never ever leave the shop if you’re lost. We wouldn’t leave without you.”

 

 

Liam wants to know more about bondage

Since that man, Liam had been thinking an awful lot about a lot of things. At first, he had been too scared and broken to even move from his bed, but once he’d been assured that something like that would never happen again and that he was going to be okay, he started thinking seriously about what the guy had said.

He understands that what the man had said and done hadn’t been right or nice, but there were a couple of things that he had picked upon that he thought did sound relevant. The fact that he wasn’t sexy, he was shy. His boys have assured him that they think he’s gorgeous and perfect, but Liam doesn’t feel like a sex pet in the sense that he’s hardly very sexual. He spends more time cuddling and kissing his boys than he does on his back.

Maybe there were things he could be doing better, maybe he could make himself a better submissive for his boys so that anyone who saw them could see it in the way he acted around the boys: he fitted in, he was right for them.

-

Liam is usually supervised when he’s on the internet, it’s simpler and easier to make sure he doesn’t come across anything that he might find upsetting. But today, he waits until Zayn and Louis have gone to university, and Niall and Harry have gone to work. They wonder why he seems alright with them going, and he’s not freaking out, but he waves them out of the door with smiles and lingering touches.

The first thing he does is turn on the computer and open up Google search. “Submissives” is the first thing he types in and he’s shocked at what he finds.

Bondage.

Toys.

Calling his dominants “sir”.

Dressing up.

Being naked, whilst they’re clothed.

Things Liam hasn’t even heard of before, too! He’s shocked and he doesn’t know what most of it means, but there are comments underneath with submissives and dominants writing in and writing their experiences of them, and they all sound positive. He finds that you can have a ‘safe word’ for if you’re finding it all too much. Red, amber and green are the most popular ones.

Is this what he needed to do to make his dominants happier?

—

Liam’s in his own bedroom when the boys come home, which alerts them to the fact that he wants to do something. If he’s in his room, then he wants sex and comfort- on a normal day, he waits in the living room or he’ll curl in up in one of their beds because they smell like they do.

“Liam?” Harry wonders if Liam’s in heat again, even though he knows that’s not due for a long time yet. “Liam what’s up?”

Liam has his eyes closed, sitting in the middle of the bed, watching as Zayn, Louis, Niall and Harry walk into his room, all looking confused and worried.

“Hi,” Liam tries to smile but laughs nervously instead. “How was your day?”

Louis waves the question away. “Fine, why are you in here? Is something the matter?”

“I was looking on the internet today,” Liam said quietly. “I found some things on there.” All of the boys instantly relax their faces, and Niall sits beside Liam and Liam crawls into his lap.

“Like what?” Zayn said absently, finding Liam’s dressing gown and helping him into it. “You’re going to be freezing if you sit in here for ages not wearing a jumper, Liam. It’s still winter.”

“Do you like it when people call you sir?”

—

When Liam says this, the boys have four different reactions. Zayn freezes, staring at Liam with wide eyes. Louis laughs out loud and has to slap his hand over his mouth because Liam starts to glare at him. Harry looks like someone has punched him in the stomach, and Niall shrugs.

“What’s brought this on?” Zayn demands. “What did you find?”

“I found lots of things,” Liam said quietly. “Like… calling you sir, and being naked when you’re not- using your strength and height against me- lots of… sex.”

Niall realises he’s the only one finding this interesting and tries to cover his erection, but Liam notices it and smiles brightly at him.

“Why were you looking for this?” Louis asks, his eyes gleaming, and maybe… maybe he’s interested, too. He’s looking at Liam almost admiringly, not angry at all that Liam used the internet on his own.

“I thought maybe you’d like it,” Liam answered honestly. “I thought… I thought we could do it, and you could see if you liked it. I’d do it… if you wanted to.”

Harry is overwhelmed with the thought of how much Liam is actually willing to do to make them happy, there seems to be no limit. It’s beautiful, but Harry isn’t sure that Liam would like the things that he speaks of.

“One day Liam,” he says slowly. “One day, when you’ve thought about this properly and you’re sure it’s what you want, we can try it. But this all seems very sudden and I really don’t think you understand what you’re talking about, here.”

Liam pouts. “I spent all day looking at it!” he defends himself. “I understand it!”

“There’s one thing understanding it,” Zayn murmured, stroking Liam’s back, “and another actually doing it. If this is what _you_ want, not you trying to please _us,_ then we’ll look into it. But right now, Liam, we just want to hold you.”

Liam smiles, because he knows Zayn has essentially just said yes.

 

 

The boys are ill- Liam takes care of them

“I feel like shit,” Harry moaned, sniffing miserably and pushing away his breakfast. “Thanks for giving me your germs, Niall.”

“Sorry,” Niall grunted, but he didn’t sound sorry at all. He was lying on the sofa in front of the television, with his boxers on a pack of tissues next to him. He hadn’t left the house for nearly a week, he had the flu.

Zayn just rolled his eyes and sneezed. “It’s not that big a deal boys,” he drawled. “It’s just a little cold. Some of us actually have to work.”

It was at that point Louis came in the room, with Liam sitting on his shoulders. Louis didn’t look amused. “Fuck you all,” he glared at them with a glint in his eye. “Whichever one of you gave me the plague isn’t getting sex for a month.”

Liam hopped off Louis’ back and dug in the cupboards, finally pulling out two bowls. Zayn’s hand was on his in a second, taking the bowls from him and making Louis and Liam some breakfast. He barely did it consciously, it’s just that it wasn’t Liam’s job to look after the boys, it was theirs.

“Niall, get dressed,” Zayn shot at the blonde boy, who groaned but slunk upstairs, “and hurry up you two, we’re going to work.”

Liam was wearing one of Niall’s oversized t-shirts, preparing himself for a whole day without his dominants, and he didn’t really want them all to leave for two reasons. One was a selfish reason, and the other reason was that they all looked like complete shit.

“We’re fine,” Louis blew Liam a kiss and they were gone.

-

Harry slinks home first, looking so sorry for himself and so run down that he doesn’t resist when Liam lets him lean on him in his room (Liam almost collapses from Harry’s weight, he’s half his size, but he doesn’t complain) and gets him in his bed, bringing him a coffee. That’s when it starts.

“I’m fine,” Harr y whines, trying to get out of bed. “Work finished early, okay? I’m not _ill.”_

Liam just raises his eyebrows at Harry’s shaking hands, pale face and the fact that it sounds like he’s hacking his lungs out. “Let me look after you,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to Harry’s hot forehead.

“Let me love you.”

-

Liam’s cooking a fry up when Louis storms into the door, sneezing to announce his presence. “I hate humans,” he says loudly and promptly collapses.

-

Louis’ slightly smaller than Harry so it’s easier to get him into his room, Louis all the while mumbling random words and trying to pick Liam up.

“I’ve made food,” Liam smiles, stripping Louis and pushing him into the bed beside Harry, who groans and curls himself into Louis.

Liam can’t help but grin at his two dominants, taking comfort in each other, looking so quiet (and ill, but Liam’s decided he’s going to make them better).

-

“Who wants more toast?” Liam looks around the room, at Louis and Harry who are still spooning in one bed, and then at Zayn and Niall who are sitting up against the headboard.

“Noooo,” Niall shouted, and then groaned when his head started to thump. “We’re fine, get into bed, just resting. Please, stop… stop c _arrying things.”_

“I phoned the doctor,” Liam ignored Niall completely, “and he says that normal cough medicine will be okay. Is it a spoon or two?” Liam looked at the label confusedly. Normally it’s the other boys caring for him when he’s ill, but the tables have been turned. “It’s two. Okay, open up Harry.”

Harry pouts and stubbornly doesn’t open his mouth. “It tastes gross,” he tosses his head to the side, so Liam straddles his hips and stuffs the spoonful into his mouth, and then another one.

“I can do it myself!” Louis protested when Liam turned on him like the medicine was his weapon. “I’m not a baby.”

Liam raised his eyebrows (sarcasm is something that needs to be learned when you live with Louis Tomlinson). “You said it was cute when I was ill. Am I a baby?”

“I am not cute,” Louis growled, but sighs and lets Liam feed him medicine.

Niall doesn’t complain again, but repeatedly says sorry, and Zayn looks annoyed with himself because he’d said they weren’t ill but it was obvious they really were and now Liam had to look after all of them because they were too weak, too pathetic to do it for themselves.

“I love doing this for you,” Liam murmurs, kissing Zayn on the cheek. “I like it when you let me love you.”

 

Liam goes into heat- Harry's the only one there

After Liam’s first heat, the boys had listened to Niall’s idea and had started tracking just when Liam was supposed to go into heat. It was nearing that time again but the only boy who could possibly be home that weekend was Harry, so the boys were hoping it wouldn’t come until they got back but Harry knew he had to be prepared to have to service Liam by himself.

And naturally, that’s what ends up happening: Liam is fine on Friday night, and he spends the night quietly in Harry’s arms. Come Saturday morning, and there’s a problem because he can’t bear to have clothes on, his skin is too sensitive to handle it, and he wakes up hard, which doesn’t often happen to him.

“Harry,” Liam whines, and Harry can see from the look in Liam’s eyes that he’s in heat. He panics at first, because he’s never actually had to be alone with Liam in the long term when he’s been in heat before, and he is at first unsure if he could it or not.

The point is that this is almost like a point of pride for Harry. He wants to be able to prove that he can look after Liam without help, that he’s a good enough dominant to do this properly for him. Harry is completely willing to give everything he has for this, forgetting about the consequences completely.

“Come here,” he says gruffly, pulling Liam towards him in the bed and kissing him gently on the lips. It’s early stages so there’s not yet a hurry, they can take this as slow as they like and Harry takes advantage of that, kissing Liam gently and stroking him until he gets completely worked up, and then turns him onto his front, sitting above him on the bed.

“Please,” Liam whispers, rubbing at his eyes.

“Is it getting too much, Liam,” Harry whispers harshly into Liam’s ear, making him shiver with the way he’s saying it. Liam’s already lubricating, so Harry gets his first finger in easily, twisting it inside Liam until he reaches the spot that makes Liam go wild.

“I like it like this,” Harry says in that quiet voice, and Liam sobs in response, rising his hips to meet Harry’s hand. “When you’re in heat, you’re so ready and willing for me. No need for lube or taking things slow.”

“Harry,” Liam repeats, and he sounds _wrecked_ already.

Harry works another inside him, and then before Liam can adjust to that he’s got another inside him, and then another. Liam’s making little whimpering sounds that make Harry want to bend down and kiss them down, swallow them right out of his mouth.

“You’re mine,” Harry says, making it sound like a promise. “I’m going to make you _scream.”_

His fingers are soon replaced with himself, and he pushes himself in slowly, feeling Liam’s sheath envelope his length inch by inch, feeling him upon even wider to accommodate Harry’s length.

The first thrust makes Liam boneless, and it’s only Harry’s strong arms around his waist keeping him from falling down on the bed. Harry’s kneeling, almost bending Liam in half to get the perfect angle.

It’s amazing, because Liam’s still in the place between his heat and his normal state, and there’s no urgency, just Harry’s quiet words and Liam’s moans.

-                                   

It gets worse. It’s twelve when his heat kicks in properly, until he starts getting desperate and begging. They have gone three rounds already, and it’s the most Harry’s had to service Liam before having a break, and he’s panting, still raising his hips to meet Liam’s, eyes closed now, trying to pace himself through this.

By two, Liam has to ride Harry because Harry literally cannot summon the strength to thrust any longer: he gets his hands on Liam’s hips and forces his eyes upon so he can watch Liam throw his head back, his mouth open a tiny bit in a silent groan.

-

Liam eventually collapses on top of Harry at around seven, falling asleep instantly. If he had looked at Harry, he would have seen just how shattered he was, just how much he had given, to the point where he wasn’t sleeping.

He was unconscious.

-

It’s not like the very first heat, where Liam had woken up with Zayn who had explained the situation to him, that the boys weren’t _dead,_ they were just weak with how much they had given Liam.

When Liam wakes up it’s to Harry, looking like he’d lost twenty pounds overnight, his eyes firmly shut, his face pale. They are bruises… _bruises_ on his skin from where Liam had gotten desperate near the end, and he looks completely gone.

“Harry!” Liam doesn’t want to shake Harry’s shoulders; he’s scared he’ll break him even further. He feels the strength coursing through himself and knows the strength belongs to Harry, that it’s his energy he can feel in his veins.

  He hadn’t looked like this the last time. He’d been weak, yes, but he’d been able to wake up… he hadn’t looked so pale, so ill. Liam thinks it’s his fault for being selfish, for being so demanding of Harry last night, not thinking for a second of what Harry must have been going through.

-

“Zayn?” Liam phones Zayn in a panic, he has no idea what to do. “Zayn, please come home!”

“Liam?” Zayn’s confused. “Liam, what’s up?”

“It’s Harry! He helped me… but now he’s not waking up, he looks so… oh god Zayn, what if he dies?”

“Liam, please calm down.”

“I can’t- I can’t, Zayn, please come home! I’m s _cared.”_

“Harry will be okay… we’re coming home this afternoon, but trust me. It takes a lot, servicing you when there are four of us yet alone when there’s only one. Just go into the front room and wait for us. Please don’t try bringing him a _nything,_ or treating him like he’s sick. He’ll get up, and he’ll need you there.”

“But Zayn-“

“ _Listen._ When he wakes up, he’s going to need you there. He will try and care for you- let him, alright? This is like pride for him. He needs to know that you respect his ability to care for you. We won’t be long and I promise you, he will be fine.”

Looking at Harry, Liam’s really not sure.


	8. Chapter 8

After Zayn’s phone call, Liam is still panicky but he trusts his second oldest dominant and knows that if he tells him to do something, then he is right and the best thing for Liam to do right now is just to listen.

He resists the urge to go and make Harry something to eat, to bring him an extra blanket and some medicine. Sometimes he hates the fact that he can’t look after his dominants like they look after him, because of their ideologies and the way they’ve been made to feel. If Liam had his way he would be looking after Harry and phoning the ambulance or forcing his boys to come home right now and help him because this just isn’t right.

But Liam knows Harry, and he has to admit that Zayn is right. If Harry is alive- pray to God, may he be alive- then that’s the last thing he wants to wake up to, the confirmation that Liam thinks he’s weak.

He doesn’t know what else to do but get back in the bed beside Harry- who’s pale and not opening his eyes, but the shallow rise of his chest tells Liam that he’s not going to d _ie,_ but in any case Liam doesn’t wrap himself into or around Harry- he’s scared he might break him. However just being near to his youngest boy makes him tired and sleepy and he falls asleep regardless of the stress he’s feeling.

-

He wakes to the smell of bacon and eggs, and the sound of _whistling._ Before he can come properly to his senses Harry comes in with a determined smile on his face, apron on (covering the fact that he’s lost weight overnight and he really shouldn’t be out of bed right now). Once Liam’s come to terms with that he realises that he’s wearing Niall’s dressing gown and his hair’s been brushed and Harry has done the clean-up; all evidence from the previous night is gone.

And then he doesn’t know what to say. He wants Harry to stop being stubborn and get back into bed and rest- because one doesn’t look as sick as Harry did and then just get up and act like nothing’s normal. But he has to be careful not to offend his pride, like Zayn had said and that just means that Liam sits there unable to think of the right things to say.

“How are you?” Harry settles the tray onto Liam’s lap and then kisses him softly for a few moments, perching on the edge and making a big deal out of checking the temperature of Liam’s forehead and adjusting the belt of his dressing gown. “You look much better this morning,” he smiles.

“You don’t,” Liam says before he can help himself because how can Harry be pretending that nothing has happened, that he didn’t have to service Liam on his own for the first time and he’d been lying dead to the world for the last twelve hours?

Harry’s lips narrow and his expression tightened. “Thanks Liam,” he says brightly. “You find me someone other than you and Zayn who can look beautiful when they first wake up and I’ll give you a million pounds-”

“I thought you were going to die,” Liam whispers and Harry’s face loses its tightness and it crumples.

“I’m fine!” he rubs Liam’s back. “Just tired, you know? I’m sorry if I scared you. It did- it did take a bit more than I’m used to, but I can handle it alright? It’s you I worry about. Don’t worry about me.”

“I worry about all of you always,” Liam says quietly.

-

It’s about two hours after Harry has woken up and won’t stop on insisting on carrying Liam everywhere and ignoring the fact that he’s dead on his feet that the boys finally come home and Liam almost faints with relief.

“I missed you,” he says when he’s in Louis’ arms, wrapped up tightly. “You’re not going away again for a while are you?”

Niall and Zayn kiss Liam hello and then they go into the kitchen where Harry is trying to make lunch and they quietly walk him off to one of their rooms. Liam pretends he doesn’t see but he’s glad they’re doing something, glad that somehow they’ve managed to get it into Harry’s head that he needs rest when Liam couldn’t do so when he’d tried previously.

“Nah, we’re good,” Louis smiles. “I can miss a couple of lectures or whatever- we’ve done most of the unit now, I’m going to pass, and it’s important that at least two of us are here with you.”

“I was scared Lou,” Liam whispers. “I was scared that he wasn’t going to wake up.”

Louis’ arms tighten around Liam. “I know baby,” he mutters comfortingly, “I know.”

-

“This place is a bit cramped isn’t it,” Niall says when they’re all trying to fit onto one couch- it’s not going to work, Liam takes up the smallest space but it’s still nonetheless a tight fit, a tangle of limbs and Zayn’s pointy elbows. “Lou, move your knee.”

“It’s a way of being affectionate,” Louis insists. “My knee seeks out your stomach. When it pokes you it’s like my penis.”

“It’s nothing like your penis,” Niall huffs. “I don’t want it _on my stomach, now move your knee.”_

“Stop fighting over space, boys,” Zayn says dryly. “There are more important things to think about.”

“Niall’s sort of right though, there’s not much space,” Harry reflects. “Like, what about when we all want babies? Where would they sleep?”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Babies?” Liam squeaks, knowing full well that he’s the only person in the room that can carry babies. “What do you mean, babies?” his heart drops a little when he remembers that these boys aren’t supposed to be having babies with _him._ They’ll find another submissive, probably all individually, ones who aren’t a sex pet and then they’ll all have their own babies and Liam will be forced to watch-

“The wriggly little things that puke everywhere,” Louis supplies helpfully, and then rolls his eyes. “Harry gets ahead of himself sometimes.”

“Well we need to think about these kinds of things!” Harry sulks.

“I was thinking maybe in terms of getting a bigger flat or a house or something myself,” Niall said. “I don’t know about babies and all that, but there’s definitely not enough living space for five in this place.”

Liam’s shrunken in on himself the more the conversation goes on. They’re planning their futures without him whilst he’s sitting right there? He didn’t think they’d be so cruel as to do _that._

Zayn notices of course, because as usual he’s the one who doesn’t get involved in the debates and the ruckus and strokes Liam’s arm comfortingly. “All plans involve you and us, no one else,” he whispers quietly into his ear and Liam relaxes despite himself, shifting his body closer to Zayn and allowing himself to actually smile as he listens to Harry, Niall and Louis argue it out.

“I don’t like sharing with Niall as it is, I’m not sharing with my own demon offspring,” Louis shakes his head. “No way. It’ll be just like me and that’s- no. Let’s get a new house though, and we can knock all the walls down and have one big room.”

“So you won’t share with just me but you’re willing to share with everyone all at the same time?”

“Erm, no. You can sleep in the garden.”

“Oh fuck _off-”_ Niall’s insult is cut off by the smirk and wink that Louis sends him, and then the oldest dominant opens him arm for a cuddle and Niall sighs and quickly embraces him (Louis kisses Niall and slips in his tongue before Niall pulls away, not that Niall is in any hurry to leave Louis’ mouth).

“If you think my parents will let me have babies without getting mated, you’re mental,” Harry injects.

There’s another beat of silence.

“You’re on form today,” Zayn sighs, winks at Liam and picks him up. “Who wants macaroni and cheese for dinner?”

-

**2 months later**

The first thing Liam thinks when he wakes up is that he’s on fire. He feels horrible, it’s hard to breathe through his nose and his entire body feels so heavy that it makes him panic but he can’t cry out to Louis to help him because he can’t open his mouth, which naturally petrifies him even more.

Everything hurts. All of his muscles feel really tight and his head is banging and he doesn’t know what to do because he can’t move and he feels woozy, so woozy.

He hopes Louis looks over at him soon, hopes he notices Liam quickly and does something- because he’s scared, he’s really scared and he’s never felt like this before.

-

It’s the first time he’s ever been in a public hospital and he doesn’t like it- he drifts in and out of conversation and Harry runs alongside his cart as he’s wheeled into an emergency room and he can feel that all of dominants are in the same room as him but he can’t do anything to show that he knows they’re there, he can hardly get in some raspy breaths through cracked lips.

At some point he hears the dreaded words “you’re going to have to leave” and he wants to protest because the cooling touch of Louis’ fingers on his wrist, Harry’s breath hot on his neck as he whispers all sorts of things to him, and Zayn and Niall’s grip on his shoulder is the only thing centring him, making him feel better, and he knows that the worst thing that can happen right now is for them to leave.

-

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Did you not seek medical advice when the ah- four of you- decided to purchase Mr Liam Styles/Malik/Horan/Tomlinson?”

“Just call him Liam, it’s a bit of a mouthful,” Niall shrugs. “Although for future reference, I do like to think that the Horan comes first-“

“Yeah okay Niall let’s focus please,” Zayn sighs. “No, we didn’t. Is that a problem? Was there something they didn’t tell us?”

“How long has Liam been off of his medication, please?”

“Er… since we got him, about a year ago now.”

“Well, the issue, Mr Tomlinson, is that- well. Liam’s body isn’t equipped to deal with f _our_ male dominants. His body has been confused since the day he went off his tablets and it’s been struggling with DNA-“

“Is he _pregnant?”_

“The point is, Mr Styles, that his body can’t figure out how the hell to get pregnant with the entire DNA he’s been exposed to. So no, he isn’t pregnant, but his body has started to kill its own cells off because of the confusion-“

“You what?”

“Mr Tomlinson, your submissive is _dying._ We’ve done tests and he’s a bit small for a sex pet- his weight is decent, you’ve been treating him well. But his development does seem a bit stunted and so he was never strong enough to deal with the pressure of four dominants, you understand-“

“We did this to him?” Harry asks tearfully. “We made him like that?”

“On the contrary, I think you’re the only ones keeping him alive.”

“You’re not making any logical sense,” Zayn said urgently. “What can we do? Surely there’s something we can do to help?”

-

“I don’t understand,” Niall blinked. “Why is she aiming that needle at me? I’m not ill.”

“If we can transfuse your blood into Liam’s, there’s a chance his body will accept and begin to understand your DNA,” the doctor explains. “You’ve made him like this, but he needs you to get out of it.”

“But isn’t this mating?”

Silence.

“Harry, stop trying to give input,” Louis whined. “You’re not _helping.”_

“Well excuse me for trying to understand-“

“Liam is dying!” Zayn shouts. “Liam is dying and rather than listening and trying to help you’re squabbling like little kids. Stop it and just fucking listen.”

“What do we need to do?” Louis asks nervously. “Just- give him our blood?”

“What will happen is you’re imprinting yourself upon him. Once you’ve done this, there’s no way of undoing it. You’ll be essentially mated for life, the five of you. I suggest you think about this properly- there may be other ways we can save him, but this is the best way.”

Zayn, Niall, Louis and Harry all look at each other.

“For Liam?” Harry whispers.

Zayn nods and they take each other’s hands. “For all of us.”


End file.
